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THE 


BLOOD     COVENANT 


A  PRIMITIVE   RITE 


AND  ITS  BEARINGS  ON  SCRIPTURE 


>  3    J 


,'.  T'  >  '  '^  ^'' 


BY 

H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL  D.D. 

Author  of  "Kadesh  Barnea." 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1885 


T7 


.      ,     ,  ,      COPYRIGHT,  1885 


GIFT  OP 
QLADY5     rSAAOSON 


GRANT   &    PAIKES 
PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE. 


It  was  while  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  a  book 
— still  unfinished — on  the  Sway  of  Friendship  in  the 
World's  Forces,  that  I  came  upon  facts  concerning 
the  primitive  rite  of  covenanting  by  the  inter-trans- 
fusion of  blood,  which  induced  me  to  turn  aside  from 
my  other  studies,  in  order  to  pursue  investigations  in 
this  direction. 

Having  an  engagement  to  deliver  a  series  of  lectures 
before  the  Summer  School  of  Hebrew,  under  Professor 
W.  R.  Harper,  of  Chicago,  at  the  buildings  of  the 
Episcopal  Divinity  School,  in  Philadelphia,  I  decided 
to  make  this  rite  and  its  linkings  the  theme  of  that 
series;  and  I  delivered  three  lectures,  accordingly, 
June  16-18,  1885. 

The  interest  manifested  in  the  subject  by  those  who 
heard  the  Lectures,  as  well  as  the  importance  of  the 
theme  itself,  has  seemed  sufficient  to  warrant  its 
presentation  to  a  larger  public.  In  this  publishing, 
the  form  of  the  original  Lectures  has,  for  convenience 
sake,  been  adhered  to ;  although  some  considerable 
I      additions  to  the  text,  in  the  way  of  illustrative  facts, 


NS7886 


IV  PREFACE. 

have  been  made,  since  the  deliveiy  of  the  Lectures ; 
while  other  similar  material  is  given  in  an  Appendix. 

From  the  very  freshness  of  the  subject  itself,  there 
was  added  difficulty  in  gathering  the  material  for  its 
iflustration  and  exposition.  So  far  as  I  could  learn, 
no  one  had  gone  over  the  ground  before  me,  in  this 
particular  line  of  research;  hence  the  various  items 
essential  to  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  must  be 
searched  for  through  many  diverse  volumes  of  travel 
and  of  history  and  of  archaeological  compilation,  with 
only  here  and  there  an  incidental  disclosure  in  return. 
Yet,  each  new  discovery  opened  the  way  for  other 
discoveries  beyond;  and  even  after  the  Lectures,  in 
their  present  form,  were  already  in  type,  I  gained 
many  fresh  facts,  which  I  wish  had  been  earlier  avail- 
able to  me.  Indeed,  I  may  say  that  no  portion  of  the 
volume  is  of  more  importance  than  the  Appendix; 
where  are  added  facts  and  reasonings  bearing  directly 
on  well-nigh  every  main  point  of  the  original  Lectures. 

There  is  cause  for  just  surprise  that  the  chief  facts 
of  this  entire  subject  have  been  so  generally  over- 
looked, in  all  the  theological  discussions,  and  in  all 
the  physio-sociological  researches,  of  the  earlier  and 
the  later  times.  Yet  this  only  furnishes  another  illus- 
tration of  the  inevitably  cramping  influence  of  a  pre- 
conceived fixed  theory, — to  which  all  the  ascertained 
facts  must  be  conformed, — in  any  attempt  at  thorough 


PREFACE.  V 

and  impartial  scientific  investigation.  It  would  seem 
to  be  because  of  such  cramping,  that  no  one  of  the 
modern  students  of  myth  and  folk-lore,  of  primitive 
ideas  and  customs,  and  of  man's  origin  and  history, 
has  brought  into  their  true  prominence,  if  indeed  he 
has  even  noticed  them  in  passing,  the  universally  dom- 
inating primitive  convictions :  that  the  blood  is  the  life ; 
that  the  heart,  as  the  blood-fountain,  is  the  very  soul  of 
every  personality ;  that  blood-transfer  is  soul-transfer ; 
that  blood-sharing,,  human,  or  divine-human,  secures 
an  inter-union  of  natures;  and  that  a  union  of  the 
human  nature  with  the  divine  is  the  highest  ultimate 
attainment  reached  out  after  by  the  most  primitive,  as 
well  as  by  the  most  enlightened,  mind  of  humanity. 

Certainly,  the  collation  of  facts  comprised  in  this 
volume  grew  out  of  no  pre-conceived  theory  on  the 
part  of  its  author.  Whatever  theory  shows  itself  in 
their  present  arrangement,  is  simply  that  which  the 
facts  themselves  have  seemed  to  enforce  and  establish, 
in  their  consecutive  disclosure. 

I  should  have  been  glad  to  take  much  more  time  for 
the  study  of  this  theme,  and  for  the  re-arranging  of 
its  material,  before  its  presentation  to  the  public ;  but, 
with  the  pressure  of  other  work  upon-  me,  the  choice 
was  between  hurrying  it  out  in  its  present  shape,  and 
postponing  it  indefinitely.  All  things  considered,  I 
\        chose  the  former  alternative. 


vi  PREFACE. 

In  the  prosecution  of  my  investigations,  I  acknowl- 
edge kindly  aid  from  Professor  Dr.  Georg  Ebers, 
Principal  Sir  William  Muir,  Dr.  Yung  Wing,  Dean 
E.  T.  Bartlett,  Professors  Doctors  John  P.  Peters  and 
J.  G.  Lansing,  the  Rev.  Dr.  M.  H.  Bixby,  Drs.  D.  G. 
Brinton  and  Charles  W.  Dulles,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  R.  M. 
Luther  and  Chester  Holcombe,  and  Mr.  E.  A.  Barber ; 
in  addition  to  constant  and  valuable  assistance  from  Mr. 
John  T.  Napier,  to  whom  I  am  particularly  indebted 
for  the  philological  comparisons  in  the  Oriental  field, 
including  the  Egyptian,  the  Arabic,  and  the  Hebrew. 

At  the  best,  my  work  in  this  volume  is  only  tentative 
and  suggestive.  Its  chief  value  is  likely  to  be  in  its 
stimulating  of  others  to  fuller  and  more  satisfactory 
research  in  the  field  here  brought  to  notice.  Suffi- 
cient, however,  is  certainly  shown,  to  indicate  that  the 
realm  of  true  Biblical  theology  is  as  yet  by  no  means 
thoroughly  explored. 

H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL. 

Philadelphia,  August  14,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  PRIMITIVE  RITE  ITSELF. 

(i.)  Sources  OF  Bible  Study,  3.  (2.)  An  Ancient  Semitic  Rite, 
4.  (3.)  The  Primitive  Rite  in  Africa,  12.  (4.)  Traces  of  the 
Rite  in  Europe,  39.  (5.)  World-wide  Sweep  of  the  Rite,  43. 
(6.)  Light  from  the  Classics,  58.  (7.)  The  Bond  of  the  Cove- 
nant, 65.  (8.)  The  Rite  and  its  Token  in  Egypt,  77.  (9.)  Other 
Gleams  of  the  Rite,  85. 

LECTURE  11. 

SUGGESTIONS  AND  PERVERSIONS  OF  THE  RITE. 

(i.)  Sacredness  of  Blood  and  of  the  Heart,  99.  (2.)  Vivify- 
ing Power  of  Blood,  110.  (3.)  A  New  Nature  through  New 
Blood,  126.  (4.)  Life  from  any  Blood,  and  by  a  Touch,  134. 
(5.)  Inspiration  through  Blood,  139.  (6.)  Inter-Communion 
through  Blood,  147.  (7.)  Symbolic  Substitutes  for  Blood,  191. 
(8.)  Blood  Covenant  Involvings,  202. 

vii 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


LECTURE   III. 

INDICATIONS  OF  THE  RITE  IN  THE  BIBLE. 

(i.)  Limitations  OF  Inquiry,  209.  (2.)  Primitive  Teachings  of 
Blood,  210.  (3.)  The  Blood  Covenant  in  Circumcision,  215. 
(4.)  The  Blood  Covenant  Tested,  224.  (5.)  The  Blood  Cove- 
nant and  its  Tokens  in  the  Passover,  230.  (6.)  The  Blood 
Covenant  at  Sinai,  238.  (7.)  The  Blood  Covenant  in  the 
Mosaic  Ritual,  240.  (8.)  The  Primitive  Rite  Illustrated,  263. 
(9.)  The  Blood  Covenant  in  the  Gospels,  271.  (10.)  The  Blood 
Covenant  Applied,  286. 

APPENDIX. 

Importance  of  this  rite  strangely  undervalued,  297.  Life 
in  the  blood,  in  the  heart,  in  the  liver,  299.  Transmigration 
of  souls,  305.  The  Blood-Rite  in  Burmah,  313.  Blood-stained 
tree  of  the  covenant,  318.  Blood-Drinking,  320.  Covenant- 
Cutting,  322.  Blood-Bathing,  324.  Blood-Ransoming,  324. 
The  Covenant-Reminder,  326.    Hints  of  Blood  Union,  332. 

INDEXES. 

Topical  Index,  345.    Scriptural  Index,  349. 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  PRIMITIVE  RITE  ITSELF. 


>    5     ,     1 


^    ,    '  o     >  5       :> 


THE  PRIMITIVE  RITE  ITSELF. 


I.   SOURCES   OF    BIBLE   STUDY. 

Those  who  are  most  familiar  with  the  Bible,  and 
who  have  already  given  most  time  to  its  study,  have 
largest  desire  and  largest  expectation  of  more  knowl- 
edge through  its  farther  study.  And,  more  and  more, 
Bible  study  has  come  to  include  veiy  much  that  is 
outside  of  the  Bible. 

For  a  long  time,  the  outside  study  of  the  Bible  was 
directed  chiefly  to  the  languages  in  which  the  Bible 
was  written,  and  to  the  archaeology  and  the  manners 
and  customs  of  what  are  commonly  known  as  the 
Lands  of  the  Bible.  Nor  are  these  well-worked  fields, 
by  any  means,  yet  exhausted.  More  still  remains  to 
be  gleaned  from  them,  each  and  all,  than  has  been 
gathered  thence  by  all  searchers  in  their  varied  lore. 
But,  latterly,  it  has  been  realized,  that,  while  the  Bible 
is  an  Oriental  book,  written  primarily  for  Orientals, 
and   therefore   to   be    understood   only    through    an 

3 


4  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

understanding  of  Oriental  modes  of  thought  and 
ss^efech,  it  i^  Jalsc*  :a:  record  of  God's  revelation  to  the 
whole  human  race ; .  hence,  its  inspired  pages  are  to 
receive  i^lu>i;'.L^c<.tion  from  all  disclosures  of  the  primi- 
tive characteristics  and  customs  of  that  race,  every- 
where. Not  alone  those  who  insist  on  the  belief  that 
there  was  a  gradual  development  of  the  race  from  a 
barbarous  beginning,  but  those  also  who  believe  that 
man  started  on  a  higher  plane,  and  in  his  degrada- 
tion retained. perverted  vestiges  of  God's  original  reve- 
lation to  him,  are  finding  profit  in  the  study  of  primi- 
tive myths,  and  of  aboriginal  religious  rites  and  cere- 
monies, all  the  world  over.  Here,  also,  what  has  been 
already  gained,  is  but  an  earnest  of  what  will  yet  be 
compassed  in  the  realm  of  truest  biblical  research. 

2.   AN   ANCIENT   SEMITIC   RITE. 

One  of  these  primitive  rites,  which  is  deserving  of 
more  attention  than  it  has  yet  received,  as  throwing 
light  on  many  important  phases  of  Bible  teaching,  is 
the  rite  of  blood-covenanting:  a  form  of  mutual 
covenanting,  by  which  two  persons  enter  into  the 
closest,  the  most  enduring,  and  the  most  sacred  of 
compacts,  as  friends  and  brothers,  or  as  more  than 
brothers,  through  the  inter-commingling  of  their 
blood,  by  means  of  its  mutual  tasting,  or  of  its  inter- 


THE   TWO  SYRIANS.  5 

transfusion.  This  rite  is  still  observed  in  the  un- 
changing East;  and  there  are  historic  traces  of  it, 
from  time  immemorial,  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe ; 
yet  it  has  been  strangely  overlooked  by  biblical 
critics  and  biblical  commentators  generally,  in  these 
later  centuries. 

In  bringing  this  rite  of  the  covenant  of  blood  into 
new  prominence,  it  may  be  well  for  me  to  tell  of  it  as 
it  was  described  to  me  by  an  intelligent  native  Syrian, 
who  saw  it  consummated  in  a  village  at  the  base  of 
the  mountains  of  Lebanon ;  and  then  to  add  evidences 
of  its  wide-spread  existence  in  the  East  and  elsewhere, 
in  earlier  and  in  later  times. 

It  was  two  young  men,  who  were  to  enter  into  this 
covenant.  They  had  known  each  other,  and  had  been 
intimate,  for  years ;  but  now  they  were  to  become 
brother-friends,  in  the  covenant  of  blood.  Their  rela- 
tives and  neighbors  were  called  together,  in  the  open 
place  before  the  village  fountain,  to  witness  the  sealing 
compact.  The  young  men  publicly  announced  their 
purpose,  and  their  reasons  for  it.  Their  declarations 
were  written  down,  in  duplicate, — one  paper  for  each 
friend, — and  signed  by  themselves  and  by  several  wit- 
nesses. One  of  the  friends  took  a  sharp  lancet,  and 
opened  a  vein  in  the  other's  arm.  Into  the  opening 
thus  made,  he  inserted  a  quill,  through  which  he 
sucked  the  living  blood.     The  lancet-blade  was  care- 


6  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

fully  wiped  on  one  of  the  duplicate  covenant-papers, 
and  then  it  was  taken  by  the  other  friend,  who  made 
a  like  incision  in  its  first  user's  arm,  and  drank  his 
blood  through  the  quill,  wiping  the  blade  on  the 
duplicate  covenant-record.  The  two  friends  declared 
together :  "  We  are  brothers  in  a  covenant  made 
before  God :  who  deceiveth  the  other,  him  will  God 
deceive."  Each  blood-marked  covenant-record,  was 
then  folded  carefully,  to  be  sewed  up  in  a  small 
leathern  case,  or  amulet,  about  an  inch  square  ;  to  be 
worn  thenceforward  by  one  of  the  covenant-brothers, 
suspended  about  the  neck,  or  bound  upon  the  arm,  in 
token  of  the  indissoluble  relation. 

The  compact  thus  made,  is  called,  M'dhadat  ed-Dant 
(  J.  jJ(  H  Jo^Ljlo  ),  the  "  Covenant  of  Blood."  The  two 
persons  thus  conjoined,  are,  Akhwat  el-M'dhadah 
(  sJ^ljLjt  iy^S  ),  "  Brothers  of  the  Covenant."  The 
rite  itself  is  recognized,  in  Syria,  as  one  of  the  very 
old  customs  of  the  land,  as  'ddah  qadeemeh  (iiU-JtXs  54>Ut) 
"a  primitive  rite."  There  are  many  forms  of  cove- 
nanting in  Syria,  but  this  is  the  extremest  and  most 
sacred  of  them  all.  As  it  is  the  inter-commingling  of 
very  lives,  nothing  can  transcend  it.  It  forms  a  tie, 
or  a  union,  which  cannot  be  dissolved.  In  marriage, 
divorce  is  a  possibility:  not  so  in  the  covenant  of 
blood.  Although  now  comparatively  rare,  in  view 
of  its  responsibilities  and  of  its  indissolubleness,  this 


HOUSE  OF  THE  AMULET,  7 

covenant  is  sometimes  entered  into  by  confidential 
partners  in  business,  or  by  fellow-travelers ;  again,  by 
robbers  on  the  road — who  would  themselves  rest  fear- 
lessly on  its  obligations,  and  who  could  be  rested  on 
within  its  limits,  however  untrustworthy  they  or  their 
fellows  might  be  to  any  other  compact.  Yet,  again,  it 
is  the  chosen  compact  of  loving  friends  ;  of  those  who 
are  drawn  to  it  only  by  mutual  love  and  trust. 

This  covenant  is  commonly  between  two  persons  of 
the  same  religion — Muhammadans,  Druzes,  or  Naza- 
renes ;  yet  it  has  been  known  between  two  persons  of 
different  religions;^  and  in  such  a  case  it  would  be 
held  as  a  closer  tie  than  that  of  birth ^  or  sect.  He 
who  has  entered  into  this  compact  with  another,  counts 
himself  the  possessor  of  a  double  life ;  for  his  friend, 
whose  blood  he  has  shared,  is  ready  to  lay  down  his 
life  with  him,  or  for  him.^  Hence  the  leathern  case, 
or  Bayt  hejdb  ( '0L5V  ^  ouo)  "  House  of  the  amulet,'"* 

1  Of  the  possibility  of  a  covenant  between  those  of  different  religions, 
Lane  says  {Arab.-Eng.  Lexicon^  s.  v.  "'Ahd):  "Hence  iX-^-t  •<> 
{dho  ^ahd)  an  appellation  given  to  a  Christian  and  a  Jew  (and  a  Sabean, 
who  is  a  subject  of  a  Muslim  government)  meaning  one  between  whom 
and  the  Muslims  a  compact,  or  covenant  exists,  whereby  the  latter  are 
responsible  for  his  security  and  freedom  and  toleration  as  long  as  he 
lives  agreeably  to  the  compact."  And  the  Blood  Covenant  is  more 
sacred  and  more  binding  than  any  other  compact. 

"Prov.  18:24.  3johniS:i3. 

*  See  Lane's  Lex.  s.  v.     "  Hejab." 


8  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

containing  the  record  of  the  covenant  (^uhdah,  5<X^  ), 
is  counted  a  proud  badge  of  honor,  by  one  who 
possesses  it ;  and  he  has  an  added  sense  of  security, 
because  he  will  not  be  alone  when  he  falleth.^ 

I  have  received  personal  testimony  from  native 
Syrians,  concerning  the  observance  of  this  rite  in 
Damascus,  in  Aleppo,  in  Hasbayya,  in  Abayh,  along 
the  road  between  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  among  the 
Koords  resident  in  Salehayyah.  All  the  Syrians  who 
have  been  my  informants,  are  at  one  concerning  the 
traditional  extreme  antiquity  of  this  rite,  and  its  ex- 
ceptional force  and  sacredness. 

In  view  of  the  Oriental  method  of  evidencing  the 
closest  possible  affection  and  confidence,  by  the  suck- 
ing of  the  loved  one's  blood,  there  would  seem  to  be 
more  than  a  coincidence  in  the  fact,  that  the  Arabic 
words  for  friendship,  for  affection,  for  blood,  and  for 
leech,  or  blood-sucker,  are  but  variations  from  a  com- 
mon root?  'Alaqa  (  ^3-L^  )  means  "to  love,"  "to 
adhere,"  "  to  feed."  'Alaq  (  (3-Lft  ),  in  the  singular, 
means  "love,"  "friendship,"  "attachment,"  "blood." 
As  the  plural  of  'alaqa  (  JuLL^  ),  'alaq  means  "  leeches," 
or  "  blood-suckers."  The  truest  friend  clings  like  a 
leech,  and  draws  blood  in  order  to  the  sharing  thereby 
of  his  friend's  life  and  nature. 

A  native  Syrian,  who  had  traveled  extensively  in 

^  Eccl.  4 : 9,  lo,  *  See  Freytag,  and  Catafago,  s.  v. 


BED'  WEEN  BRO  THERHOOD.  g 

the  East,  and  who  was  familiar  with  the  covenant  of 
blood  in  its  more  common  form,  as  already  described, 
told  me  of  a  practice  somewhat  akin  to  it,  whereby  a 
bandit-chieftain  would  pledge  his  men  to  implicit  and 
unqualified,  life-surrendering  fidelity  to  himself;  or, 
whereby  a  conspirator  against  the  government  would 
bind,  in  advance,  to  his  plans,  his  fellow  conspirators, — 
by  a  ceremony  known  as  Sharb  el-ahd(^  tX.g-*Jt  V/-^  ) 
"  Drinking  the  covenant"  The  methods  of  such  cove- 
nanting are  various  ;  but  they  are  all  of  the  nature  of 
tests  of  obedience  and  of  endurance.  They  some- 
times include  licking  a  heated  iron  with  the  tongue, 
or  gashing  the  tongue,  or  swallowing  pounded  glass  or 
other  dangerous  potions;  but,  in  all  cases,  the  idea 
seems  to  be,  that  the  life  of  the  one  covenanting  is,  by 
this  covenant,  devoted — surrendered  as  it  were — ^to 
the  one  with  whom  he  covenants;  and  the  rite  is 
uniformly  accompanied  with  a  solemn  and  an  im- 
precatory appeal  to  God,  as  witnessing  and  guarding 
the  compact. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Wetzstein,  a  German  scholar,  diplomat, 
and  traveler,  who  has  given  much  study  to  the  peoples 
east  of  the  Jordan,  makes  reference  to  the  binding 
force  and  the  profound  obligation  of  the  covenants  of 
brotherhood,  in  that  portion  of  the  East ;  although 
he  gives  no  description  of  the  methods  of  the  cove- 
nant-rite.    Speaking  of  two  Bed'ween — Habbas  and 


lO  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Hosayn — who  had  been  "  brothered  "  {verbt'udert),  he 
explains  by  saying  :  "  We  must  by  this  [term]  under- 
stand the  Covenant  of  Brotherhood  (Chuwwat  el-Ahed 
[  lX-^I  s^  ])/  which  is  in  use  to-day  not  only  among 
the  Hadari  [the  Villagers],  but  also  among  the 
Bed'ween ;  and  is  indeed  of  pre-Muhammadan  origin. 
The  brother  [in  such  a  covenant]  must  guard  the 
[other]  brother  from  treachery,  and  [must]  succor 
him  in  peril.  So  far  as  may  be  necessary,  the  one 
must  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  other ;  and  the  sur- 
vivor has  weighty  obligations  in  behalf  of  the  family 
of  the  one  deceased."  Then,  as  showing  how  com- 
pletely the  idea  of  a  common  life  in  the  lives  of  two 
friends  thus  covenanted — if,  indeed,  they  have  become 
sharers  of  the  same  blood — sways  the  Oriental  mind, 
Wetzstein  adds  :  "  The  marriage  of  a  man  and  woman 
between  whom  this  covenant  exists,  is  held  to  be 
incest'''^ 

There  are,  indeed,  various  evidences  that  the  tie  of 
blood-covenanting  is  reckoned,  in  the  East,  even  a  closer 
tie  than  that  of  natural  descent ;  that  a  "  friend  "  by  this 
tie  is  nearer  and  is  dearer,  "  sticketh  closer,"  than  a 
"  brother  "  by  birth.  We,  in  the  West,  are  accustomed 
to  say,  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water  " ;  but  the 
Arabs  have  the  idea  that  blood  is  thicker  than  milk, 

^  See  "  Brothers  of  the  Covenant,"  p.  6,  mpra. 

2  Sprachliches  aus  den  Zeltlagern  der  syrischen  IVuste,  p.  37. 


BLOOD  IS  THICKER    THAN  WATER.         II 

than  a  mother's  milk.  With  them,  any  two  children 
nourished  at  the  same  breast  are  called  "  milk-broth- 
ers," ^  or  "  sucking  brothers  "  ;  ^  and  the  tie  between 
such  is  very  strong.  A  boy  and  a  girl  in  this  relation 
cannot  marry,  even  though  by  birth  they  had  no  family 
relationship.  Among  even  the  more  bigoted  of  the 
Druzes,  a  Druze  girl  who  is  a  "  sucking  sister  "  of  a 
Nazarene  boy  is  allowed  a  sister's  privileges  with  him. 
He  can  see  her  uncovered  face,  even  to  the  time  of 
her  marriage.  But,  the  Arabs  hold  that  brothers  in 
the  covenant  of  blood  are  closer  than  brothers  at  a 
common  breast;  that  those  who  have  tasted  each 
other's  blood  are  in  a  surer  covenant  than  those  who 
have  tasted  the  same  milk  together ;  that  "  blood-lick- 
ers,"  ^  as  the  blood-brothers  are  sometimes  called,  are 
more  truly  one,  than  "  milk-brothers,"  or  "  sucking 
brothers  " ;  that,  indeed,  blood  is  thicker  than  milk,  as 
well  as  thicker  than  water.  '^' 

This  distinction  it  is  which  seems  to  be  referred  to 
in  a  citation  from  the  Arabic  poet  El-A'asha,  by  the 
Arabic  lexicographer  Qamus,  which  has  been  a  puz- 
zle to  Lane,  and  Freytag,  and  others.''     Lane's  transla- 

^  See  Redhouse's  Turkish  and  English  Dictionary,  s.  w.  sood  and  soot. 
2  See  Lane,  and  Freytag,  s.  vv.  rada  '«,  and  thady. 

^  See  reference  to  Ibn  Hisham,  125,  in  Prof.  W.  Robertson  Smith's 
Old  Test,  in  Jewish  Churchy  Notes  to  Lect.  XII.    See,  also,  p.  59,  infra. 

*  See  Lane,  and  Freytag,  s.  v.  sahama ;  also  Smith's  Old  Test,  in 
Jewish  Churchy  Notes  to  Lect.  XII. 


12  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

tion  of  the  passage  is :  "  Two  foster-brothers  by  the 
sucking  of  the  breast  of  one  mother,  swore  together 
by  dark  blood,  into  which  they  dipped  their  hands, 
that  they  should  not  ever  become  separated."  In  other 
words,  two  milk-brothers  became  blood-brothers,  by 
interlocking  their  hands  under  their  own  blood,  in  the 
covenant  of  blood-friendship.  They  had  been  closely 
inter-linked  before ;  now  they  were  as  one ;  for  blood  is 
thicker  than  milk.  The  oneness  of  nature  which  comes 
of  sharing  the  same  blood,  by  its  inter-transfusion,  is 
rightly  deemed,  by  the  Arabs,  completer  than  the  one- 
ness of  nature  which  comes  of  sharing  the  same  milk ; 
or  even  than  that  which  comes  through  having  blood 
from  a  common  source,  by  natural  descent. 

3.    THE   PRIMITIVE   RITE   IN   AFRICA. 

Travelers  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  also,  report  the 
covenant  of  "  blood-brotherhood,"  or  of  "  strong-friend- 
ship," as  in  vogue  among  various  African  tribes ;  al- 
though, naturally  retaining  less  of  primitive  sacredness 
there  than  among  Semites.  The  rite  is,  in  some  cases, 
observed  after  the  manner  of  the  Syrians,  by  the  con- 
tracting parties  tasting  each  other's  blood ;  while,  in 
other  cases,  it  is  performed  by  the  inter-transfusion  of 
blood  between  the  two. 

The  first  mention  which  I  find  of  it,  in  the  writings 
of  modern  travelers  in  Africa,  is  by  the  lamented  hero- 


BRO  THERHOOD  IN  BLOOD  AND  BEER.       1 3 

missionary,  Dr.  Livingstone.  He  calls  the  rite  Kasendi. 
It  was  in  the  region  of  Lake  Dilolo,  at  the  watershed 
between  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Atlantic,  in  July, 
1854,  that  he  made  blood-friendship,  vicariously,  with 
Queen  Manenko,  of  the  Balonda  tribes.^  She  was 
represented,  in  this  ceremony,  by  her  husband,  the 
ebony  "  Prince  Consort " ;  while  Livingstone's  repre- 
sentative was  one  of  his  Makololo  attendants.  Wo- 
man's right  to  rule — when  she  has  the  right — seems  to 
be  as  clearly  recognized  in  Central  Africa,  to-day,  as  it 
was  in  Ethiopia  in  the  days  of  Candace,  or  in  Sheba 
in  the  days  of  Balkees. 

Describing  the  ceremony,  Livingstone  says  '?  "It  is 
accomplished  thus :  The  hands  of  the  parties  are 
joined  (in  this  case  Pitsane  and  Sambanza  were  the 
parties  engaged).  Small  incisions  are  made  on  the 
clasped  hands,  on  the  pits  of  the  stomach  of  each, 
and  on  the  right  cheeks  and  foreheads.  A  small 
quantity  of  blood  is  taken  off  from  these  points,  in 
both  parties,  by  means  of  a  stalk  of  grass.  The 
blood  from  one  person  is  put  into  a  pot  of  beer, 
and  that  of  the  second  into  another;  each  then 
drinks  the  other's  blood,  and  they  are  supposed  to 
become  perpetual  friends,  or  relations.  During  the 
drinking  of  the  beer,  some  of  the  party  continue  beat- 

^  See  Livingstone's  Travels  and  Res,  in  So.  Africa^  pp.  290-296. 
*  3id.,  p.  525. 

2 


14  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

ing  the  ground  with  short  clubs,  and  utter  sentences 
by  way  of  ratifying  the  treaty.  "  The  men  belonging 
to  each  [principal's  party],  then  finish  the  beer.  The 
principals  in  the  performance  of  *  Kasendi '  are  hence- 
forth considered  blood-relations,  and  are  bound  to  dis- 
close to  each  other  any  impending  evil.  If  Sekeletu 
[chief  of  Pitsane's  tribe — the  Makololo — ]  should  re- 
solve to  attack  the  Balonda  [Sambanza's — or,  more 
properly,  Manenko's — ^people],  Pitsane  would  be  under 
obligation  to  give  Sambanza  warning  to  escape ;  and  so, 
on  the  other  side.  [The  ceremony  concluded  in  this 
case]  they  now  presented  each  other  with  the  most 
valuable  presents  they  had  to  bestow.  Sambanza 
walked  off  with  Pitsane's  suit  of  green  baize  faced 
with  red,  which  had  been  made  in  Loanda ;  and  Pit- 
sane,  besides  abundant  supplies  of  food,  obtained  two 
shells  [of  as  great  value,  in  regions  far  from  the  sea, 
*  as  the  Lord  Mayor's  badge  is  in  London,']  similar  to 
that  [one,  which]  I  had  received  from  Shinte  [the  uncle 
of  Manenko]."^ 

Of  the  binding  force  of  this  covenant,  Livingstone 
says  farther :  "  On  one  occasion  I  became  blood-rela- 
tion to  a  young  woman  by  accident.  She  had  a  large 
cartilaginous  tumor  between  the  bones  of  the  fore- 
arm, which  as  it  gradually  enlarged,  so  distended  the 
muscles  as  to  render  her  unable  to  work.     She  ap- 

*  See  Livingstone's  Travels  and  Res.  in  So.  Afj-ica,  p.  324  f. 


AN  UNCHANGING  PEOPLE.  1 5 

plied  to  me  to  excise  it.  I  requested  her  to  bring  her 
husband,  if  he  were  willing  to  have  the  operation  per- 
formed ;  and  while  removing  the  tumor,  one  of  the 
small  arteries  squirted  some  blood  into  my  eye.  She 
remarked,  when  I  was  wiping  the  blood  out  of  it, 
*  You  were  a  friend  before ;  now  you  are  a  blood-rela- 
tion ;  and  when  you  pass  this  way  always  send  me  word, 
that  I  may  cook  food  for  you.'  "  ^ 

Of  the  influence  of  these  inter-tribal  blood-friend- 
ships, in  Central  Africa,  Dr.  Livingstone  speaks  most 
favorably.  Their  primitive  character  is  made  the 
more  probable,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  first  found 
them  existing  in  a  region  where,  in  his  opinion,  the 
dress  and  household  utensils  of  the  people  are  identi- 
cal with  those  which  are  represented  on  the  monu- 
ments of  ancient  Egypt.^  Although  it  is  within  our 
own  generation  that  this  mode  of  covenanting  in  the 
region  referred  to,  has  been  made  familiar  to  us,  the 
rite  itself  is  of  old,  elsewhere  if  not,  indeed,  there ;  as 
other  travelers  following  in  the  track  of  Livingstone 
have  noted  and  reported. 

Commander  Cameron,  who,  while  in  charge  of  the 
Livingstone  Search  Expedition,  was  the  first  European 
traveler  to  cross  the  whole  breadth  of  the  African 
continent  in  its  central  latitudes,  gives  several  illustra- 

^  See  Livingstone's  Travels  and  Res.  in  So.  Africa^  p.  526. 
'^Ibid.y  p.  213. 


l6  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

tions  of  the  observance  of  this  rite.  In  June,  1874,  at 
the  westward  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  Syde,  a  guide  of 
Cameron,  entered  into  this  covenant  of  blood  with 
Pakwanya,  a  local  chief 

"  After  a  certain  amount  of  palaver,"  says  Cameron, 
"  Syde  and  Pakwanya  exchanged  presents,  much  to 
the  advantage  of  the  former  [for  in  the  East,  the 
person  of  higher  rank  is  supposed  to  give  the  more 
costly  gifts  in  any  such  exchange] ;  more  especially 
[in  this  case]  as  he  [Syde]  borrowed  the  beads  of  me 
and  afterward  forgot  to  repay  me.  Pakwanya  then 
performed  a  tune  on  his  harmonium,  or  whatever  the 
instrument  [which  he  had]  might  be  called,  and  the 
business  of  fraternizing  was  proceeded  with.  Pak- 
wanya's  head  man  acted  as  his  sponsor,  and  one  of  my 
askari  assumed  the  Uke  office  for  Syde. 

"  The  first  operation  consisted  of  making  an  incision 
on  each  of  their  right  wrists,  just  sufficient  to  draw 
blood ;  a  little  of  which  was  scraped  off  and  smeared 
on  the  other's  cut;  after  which  gunpowder  was  rubbed 
in  [thereby  securing  a  permanent  token  on  the  arm]. 
The  concluding  part  of  the  ceremony  was  performed 
by  Pakwanya's  sponsor  holding  a  sword  resting  on 
his  shoulder,  while  he  who  acted  [as  sponsor]  for 
Syde  went  through  the  motions  of  sharpening  a  knife 
upon  it.  Both  sponsors  meanwhile  made  a  speech, 
calling  down  imprecations  on  Pakwanya  and  all  his 


DRINKING   THE  COVENANT,  17 

relations,  past,  present,  and  future,  and  prayed  that 
their  graves  might  be  defiled  by  pigs  if  he  broke  the 
brotherhood  in  word,  thought,  or  deed.  The  same 
form  having  been  gone  through  with,  [with]  respect 
to  Syde,  the  sponsors  changing  duties,  the  brother- 
making  was  complete."^ 

Concerning  the  origin  of  this  rite,  in  this  region, 
Cameron  says  :  "  This  custom  of  *  making  brothers,' 
I  believe  to  be  really  of  Semitic  origin,  and  to  have 
been  introduced  into  Africa  by  the  heathen  Arabs 
before  the  days  of  Mohammed;  and  this  idea  is 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  when  the  first  traders 
from  Zanzibar  crossed  the  Tanganyika,  the  ceremony 
was  unknown  [so  far  as  those  traders  knew]  to  the 
westward  of  that  lake."^  Cameron  was,  of  course, 
unaware  of  the  world-wide  prevalence  of  this  rite; 
but  his  suggestion  that  its  particular  form  just  here 
had  a  Semitic  origin,  receives  support  in  a  peculiar 
difference  noted  between  the  Asiatic  and  the  African 
ceremonies. 

It  will  be  remembered,  that,  among  the  Syrians,  the 
blood  of  the  covenant  is  taken  into  the  mouth,  and 
the  record  of  the  covenant  is  bound  upon  the  arm. 
The  Africans,  not  fully  appreciating  the  force  of  a 
written  record,  are  in  the  habit  of  reversing  this  order, 
according  to  Cameron's  account.     Describing  the  rite 

1  Cameron's  Acroas  Africa^  I.,  333.  ^  Ibid.y  I.,  333  f. 

2* 


l8  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

as  observed  between  his  men  and  the  natives,  on  the 
Luama  River,  he  says:  "The  brotherhood  business 
having  been  completed  [by  putting  the  blood  from 
one  party  on  to  the  arm  of  the  other],  some  pen  and 
ink  marks  were  made  on  a  piece  of  paper,  which, 
together  with  a  charge  of  powder,  was  put  into  a 
kettleful  of  water.  All  hands  then  drank  of  the 
decoction,  the  natives  being  told  that  it  was  a  very 
great  medicine."  ^  That  was  "  drinking  the  covenant "  ^ 
with  a  vengeance ;  nor  is  it  difficult  to  see  how  this 
idea  originated. 
-  The  gallant  and  adventurous  Henry  M.  Stanley 
also  reports  this  rite  of  "blood-brotherhood,"  or  of 
"  strong  friendship,"  in  the  story  of  his  romantic  expe- 
riences in  the  wilds  of  Africa.  On  numerous  occasions 
the  observance  of  this  rite  was  a  means  of  protection 
and  relief  to  Stanley.  One  of  its  more  notable  illus- 
trations was  in  his  compact  with  "  Mirambo,  the  warrior 
chief  of  Western  Unyamwezi;"^  whose  leadership  in 
warfare  Stanley  compares  to  that  of  both  Frederick 
the  Great^  and  Napoleon.® 

It  was  during  his  first  journey  in  pursuit  of  Living- 
stone, in  1 87 1, that  Stanley  first  encountered  the  forces 
of  Mirambo,  and  was  worsted  in  the  conflict.^    Writing 

"^Across  Africa,  I.,  369.  2  3ge  page  9,  supra. 

'  Through  the  Dark  Continent,  I.,  107, 130  f.  *  Ibid.,  I.,  492. 

'^  Ibid.,  I.,  52,  492,  ^  How  I  found  Livingstone,  pp.  267-304. 


THE  MARS  OF  AFRICA.  1 9 

of  him,  after  his  second  expedition,  Stanley  describes 
Mirambo,  as  "  the  'Mars  of  Africa/  who  since  1871 
has  made  his  name  feared  by  both  native  and  foreigner 
from  Usui  to  Urori,  and  from  Uvinza  to  Ugogo,  a 
country  embracing  90,000  square  miles ;  who,  from 
the  village  chieftainship  over  Uyoweh,  has  made  for 
himself  a  name  as  well  known  as  that  of  Mtesa 
throughout  the  eastern  half  of  Equatorial  Africa ;  a 
household  word  from  Nyangwe  to  Zanzibar,  and  the 
theme  of  many  a  song  of  the  bards  of  Unyamwezi, 
Ukimbu,  Ukonongo,  Uzinja,  and  Uvinza."^  For  a 
time,  during  his  second  exploring  expedition,  Stanley 
was  inclined  to  avoid  Mirambo,  but  becoming  "  im- 
pressed with  his  ubiquitous  powers,"^  he  decided  to 
meet  him,  and  if  possible  make  "  strong  friendship  " 
with  him.  They  came  together,  first,  at  Serombo, 
April  22,  1876.  Mirambo  "quite  captivated"  Stanley. 
"  He  was  a  thorough  African  gentleman  in  appearance. 
.  A  handsome,  regular-featured,  mild-voiced, 
soft-spoken  man,  with  what  one  might  call  a  '  meek ' 
demeanor ;  very  generous  and  open-handed ;"  his  eyes 
having  "the  steady,  calm  gaze  of  a  master."^ 

The  African  hero  and  the  heroic  American  agreed  to 
"  make  strong  friendship  "  with  each  other.  Stanley 
thus  describes  the  ceremony :  "  Manwa  Sera  [Stanley's 

1  Thro.  Dark  Coni.,  I.,  489  f.  ?  Ibid.,  I.,  130. 

3/<5/a'.,  I.,  487-49?,. 


20  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

'chief  captain']  was  requested  to  seal  our  friendship 
•by  performing  the  ceremony  of  blood-brotherhood  be- 
tween Mirambo  and  myself  Having  caused  us  to  sit 
fronting  each  other  on  a  straw-carpet,  he  made  an  in- 
cision in  each  of  our  right  legs,  from  which  he  extracted 
blood,  and  inter-changing  it,  he  exclaimed  aloud  :  *  If 
either  of  you  break  this  brotherhood  now  established 
between  you,  may  the  lion  devour  him,  the  serpent 
poison  him,  bitterness  be  in  his  food,  his  friends  desert 
him,  his  gun  burst  in  his  hands  and  wound  him,  and 
everything  that  is  bad  do  wrong  to  him  until  death.' "  ^ 
The  same  blood  now  flowed  in  the  veins  of  both  Stan- 
ley and  Mirambo.  They  were  friends  and  brothers  in 
a  sacred  covenant ;  life  for  life.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  covenant,  they  exchanged  gifts ;  as  the  customary 
ratification,  or  accompaniment,  of  the  compact  They 
even  vied  with  each  other  in  proofs  of  their  unselfish 
fidelity,  in  this  new  covenant  of  friendship.^ 

Again  and  again,  before  and  after  this  incident, 
Stanley  entered  into  the  covenant  of  blood-brother- 
hood with  representative  Africans ;  in  some  instances 
by  the  opening  of  his  own  veins ;  at  other  times  by 
allowing  one  of  his  personal  escort  to  bleed  for  him. 
In  January,  1875,  a  "great  magic  doctor  of  Vinyata" 
came  to  Stanley's  tent  to  pay  a  friendly  visit,  "  bring- 
ing with  him  a  fine,  fat  ox  as  a  peace  offering."    After 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  I.,  493.  ^  Ibid.,  I.,  493  f. 


BLOOD-BROTHERHOOD  REFUSED.  21 

an  exchange  of  gifts,  says  Stanley,  "he  entreated  me  to 
go  through  the  process  of  blood-brotherhood,  which 
I  underwent  with  all  the  ceremonious  gravity  of  a 
pagan."  ^ 

Three  months  later,  in  April,  1875,  when  Stanley 
found  himself  and  his  party  in  the  treacherous  toils 
of  Shekka,  the  King  of  Bumbireh,  he  made  several 
vain  attempts  to  "induce  Shekka,  with  gifts,  to  go 
through  the  process  of  blood-brotherhood."  Stanley's 
second  captain,  Safeni,  was  the  adroit,  but  unsuccessful, 
agent  in  the  negotiations.  "  Go  frankly  and  smilingly, 
Safeni,  up  to  Shekka,  on  the  top  of  that  hill,"  said 
Stanley,  "  and  offer  him  these  three  fundo  of  beads, 
and  ask  him  to  exchange  blood  with  you."  But  the 
wily  king  was  not  to  be  dissuaded  from  his  warlike 
purposes  in  that  way.  "  Safeni  returned.  Shekka 
had  refused  the  pledge  of  peace."  ^  His  desire  was  to 
take  blood,  if  at  all,  without  any  exchange. 

After  still  another  three  months,  in  July,  1875,  Stan- 
ley, at  Refuge  Island,  reports  better  success  in  secur- 
ing peace  and  friendship  through  blood-giving  and 
blood-receiving.  "Through  the  influence  of  young 
Lukanjah — the  cousin  of  the  King  of  Ukerewe  " — he 
says,  "  the  natives  of  the  mainland  had  been  induced 
to  exchange  their  churlish  disposition  for  one  of  cordial 
welcome ;  and  the  process  of  blood-brotherhood  had 

1  Thro.  Dark  ConL,  I.,  123.  2  /^/^.^  i,^  227-237. 


22  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

been  formally  gone  through  [with],  between  Manwa 
Sera,  on  my  part,  and  Kijaju,  King  of  Komeh,  and  the 
King  of  Itawagumba,  on  the  other  part"  ^ 

It  was  at  "  Kampunzu,  in  the  district  of  Uvinza, 
where  dwell  the  true  aborigines  of  the  forest  country," 
— a  people  whom  Stanley  afterwards  found  to  be 
cannibals — that  this  rite  was  once  more  observed  be- 
tween the  explorers  and  the  natives.  "  Blood-brother- 
hood being  considered  as  a  pledge  of  good-will  and 
peace,"  says  Stanley,  "  Frank  Pocock  [a  young  Eng- 
lishman who  was  an  attendant  of  Stanley]  and  the 
chief  [of  Kampunzu]  went  through  the  ordeal ;  and 
we  interchanged  presents  " — as  is  the  custom  in  the 
observance  of  this  rite.  ^ 

At  the  island  of  Mpika,  on  the  Livingstone  River, 
in  December,  1876,  there  was  another  bright  episode 
in  Stanley's  course  of  travel,  through  this  mode  of 
sealing  friendship.  Disease  had  been  making  sad 
havoc  in  Stanley's  party.  He  had  been  compelled  to 
fight  his  way  along  through  a  region  of  cannibals. 
While  he  was  halting  for  a  breakfast  on  the  river 
bank  over  against  Mpika,  an  attack  on  him  was  pre- 
paring by  the  excited  inhabitants  of  the  island.  Just 
then  his  scouts  captured  a  native  trading  party  of  men 
and  women  who  were  returning  to  Mpika,  from  inland ; 
and  to  them  his  interpreters  made  clear  his  pacific 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  I.,  268.  ^  Ibid.,  II.,  144-146. 


PEACE  SEALED  BY  BLOOD.  23 

intentions.  "  By  means  of  these  people,"  he  says, "  we 
succeeded  in  checking  the  warhke  demonstrations  of 
the  islanders,  and  in  finally  persuading  them  to  make 
blood-brotherhood ;  after  which  we  invited  canoes  to 
come  and  receive  [these  hostages]  their  friends.  As 
they  hesitated  to  do  so,  we  embarked  them  in  our  own 
boat,  and  conveyed  them  across  to  the  island.  The 
news  then  spread  quickly  along  the  whole  length  of 
the  island  that  we  were  friends,  and  as  we  resumed 
our  journey,  crowds  from  the  shore  cried  out  to  us, 
'  Mwende  Ki-vuke-vuke '  ('  Go  in  peace  ! ')  "  ^ 

Once  more  it  was  at  the  conclusion  of  a  bloody 
conflict,  in  the  district  of  Vinya-Njara,  just  below 
Mpika  Island,  that  peace  was  sealed  by  blood.  When 
practical  victory  was  on  Stanley's  side,  at  the  cost  of 
four  of  his  men  killed,  and  thirteen  more  of  them 
wounded,  then  he  sought  this  means  of  amity.  "  With 
the  aid  of  our  interpreters,"  he  says,  "  we  communi- 
cated our  terms,  viz.,  that  we  would  occupy  Vinya- 
Njara,  and  retain  all  the  canoes  unless  they  made 
peace.  We  also  informed  them  that  we  had  one 
prisoner,  who  would  be  surrendered  to  them  if  they 
availed  themselves  of  our  offer  of  peace :  that  we  had 
suffered  heavily,  and  they  had  also  suffered ;  that  war 
was  an  evil  which  wise  men  avoided ;  that  if  they 
came  with  two  canoes  with  their  chiefs,  two  canoes 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  II.,  177  f. 


24  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

with  our  chiefs  should  meet  them  in  mid-stream,  and 
make  blood-brotherhood;  and  that  on  that  condition 
some  of  their  canoes  should  be  restored,  and  we  would 
purchase  the  rest."  The  natives  took  time  for  the 
considering  of  this  proposition,  and  then  accepted  it. 
"  On  the  22nd  of  December,  the  ceremony  of  blood- 
brotherhood  having  been  formally  concluded,  in  mid- 
river,  between  Safeni  and  the  chief  of  Vinya-Njara," 
continues  Stanley, "  our  captive,  and  fifteen  canoes,  were 
returned,  and  twenty-three  canoes  were  retained  by  us 
for  a  satisfactory  equivalent;  and  thus  our  desperate 
struggle  terminated."  ^ 

On  the  Livingstone,  just  below  the  Equator,  in 
February,  1877,  Stanley's  party  was  facing  starvation, 
having  been  for  some  time  "  unable  to  purchase  food, 
or  indeed  [to]  approach  a  settlement  for  any  amicable 
purpose."  The  explorers  came  to  look  at  "  each  other 
as  fated  victims  of  protracted  famine,  or  [of]  the  rage 
of  savages,  like  those  of  Mangala."  "  We  continued 
our  journey,"  goes  on  the  record,  "  though  grievously 
hungry,  past  Bwena  and  Inguba,  doing  our  utmost  to 
induce  the  staring  fishermen  to  communicate  with  us; 
without  any  success.  They  became  at  once  officiously 
busy  with  guns,  and  dangerously  active.  We  arrived 
at  Ikengo,  and  as  we  were  almost  despairing,  we  pro- 
ceeded to  a  small  island  opposite  this  settlement,  and 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  II.,  l88. 


BLOOD  FOR  BLOOD.  25 

prepared  to  encamp.  Soon  a  canoe  with  seven  men 
came  dashing  across,  and  we  prepared  our  moneys  for 
exhibition.  They  unhesitatingly  advanced,  and  ran 
their  canoe  alongside  of  us.  We  were  rapturously 
joyful,  and  returned  them  a  most  cordial  welcome,  as 
the  act  was  a  most  auspicious  sign  of  confidence.  We 
were  liberal,  and  the  natives  fearlessly  accepted  our 
presents ;  and  from  this  giving  of  gifts  we  proceeded 
to  seal  this  incipient  friendship  with  our  blood,  with  all 
due  ceremony."^  And  by  this  transfusion  of  blood, 
the  starving  were  re-vivified,  and  the  despairing  were 
given  hope. 

Twice,  again,  within  a  few  weeks  after  this  experi- 
ence, there  was  a  call  on  Stanley  of  blood  for  blood, 
in  friendship's  compact.  The  people  of  Chumbiri  wel- 
comed the  travelers.  "They  readily  subscribed  to 
all  the  requirements  of  friendship,  blood-brotherhood, 
and  an  exchange  of  a  few  small  gifts."  ^  Itsi,  the  king 
of  Ntamo,  with  several  of  his  elders  and  a  showy 
escort,  came  out  to  meet  Stanley ;  and  there  was  a 
friendly  greeting  on  both  sides.  "  They  then  broached 
the  subject  of  blood-brotherhood.  We  were  willing," 
says  Stanley,  "  but  they  wished  to  defer  the  ceremony 
until  they  had  first  shown  their  friendly  feelings  to 
us."  Thereupon  gifts  were  exchanged,  and  the  king 
indicated  his  preference  for  a  "  big  goat "  of  Stanley's, 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  II.,  305  f.  2  Ibid.,  II.,  315. 

3 


26  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

as  his  benefaction — which,  after  some  parleying,  was 
transferred  to  him.  Then  caime  the  covenant-rite. 
"  The  treaty  with  Itsi,"  says  Stanley,  "  was  exceed- 
ingly ceremonious,  and  involved  the  exchange  of 
charms.  Itsi  transferred  to  me  for  my  protection 
through  life,  a  small  gourdful  of  a  curious  powder, 
which  had  rather  a  saline  taste ;  and  I  delivered  over 
to  him,  as  the  white  man's  charm  against  all  evil,  a 
half-ounce  vial  of  magnesia;  further,  a  small  scratch 
in  Frank's  arm,  and  another  in  Itsi's  arm,  supplied 
blood  sufficient  to  unite  us  in  one,  and  [by  an]  indivisi- 
ble bond  of  fraternity."^ 

Four  years  after  this  experience  of  blood-covenant- 
ing, by  proxy,  with  young  Itsi,  Stanley  found  himself 
again  at  Ntamo,  or  across  the  river  from  it ;  this  time 
in  the  interest  of  the  International  Association  of  the 
Congo.  Being  short  of  food,  he  had  sent  out  a  party 
of  foragers,  and  was  waiting  their  return  with  interest. 
"  During  the  absence  of  the  food-hunters,"  he  says, 
"  we  heard  the  drums  of  Ntamo,  and  [we]  followed 
with  interested  eyes  the  departure  of  two  large  ca- 
noes from  the  landing-place,  their  ascent  to  the  place 
opposite,  and  their  final  crossing  over  towards  us. 
Then  we  knew  that  Ngalyema  of  Ntamo  had  condes- 
cended to  come  and  visit  us.  As  soon  as  he  arrived 
I  recognized  him  as  the  Itsi  with  whom,  in   1877,  I 

1  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  II.,  330-332. 


A  LONG  LOST  BROTHER.  27 

had  made  blood-brotherhood  [by  proxy].  During 
the  four  years  that  had  elapsed,  he  had  become  a 
great  man.  ...  He  was  now  about  thirty-four 
years  old,  of  well-built  form,  proud  in  his  bearing, 
covetous  and  grasping  in  disposition,  and,  like  all 
other  lawless  barbarians,  prone  to  be  cruel  and  san- 
guinary whenever  he  might  safely  vent  his  evil  humor. 
Superstition  had  found  in  him  an  apt  and  docile  pupil, 
and  fetishism  held  him  as  one  of  its  most  abject 
slaves.  This  was  the  man  in  whose  hands  the  desti- 
nies of  the  Association  Internationale  du  Congo  were 
held,  and  upon  whose  graciousness  depended  our  only 
hope  of  being  able  to  effect  a  peaceful  lodgment  on 
the  Upper  Congo."  A  pagan  African  was  an  African 
pagan,  even  while  the  blood-brother  of  a  European 
Christian.  Yet,  the  tie  of  blood-covenanting  was  the 
strongest  tie  known  in  Central  Africa.  Frank  Pocock, 
whose  covenant-blood  flowed  in  Itsi's  veins,  was 
dead ;  ^  yet  for  his  sake  his  master,  Stanley,  was  wel- 
comed by  Itsi  as  a  brother;  and  in  true  Eastern 
fashion  he  was  invited  to  prove  anew  his  continuing 
faith  by  a  fresh  series  of  love-showing  gifts.  "  My 
brother  being  the  supreme  lord  of  Ntamo,  as  well  as 
the  deepest-voiced  and  most  arrogant  rogue  among 
the  whole  tribe,"  says  Stanley,  "  first  demanded  the 
two  asses  [which  Stanley  had  with  him],  then  a  large 

1  Thro.  Dark  ConL,  II.,  402-408. 


28  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

mirror,  which  was  succeeded  by  a  splendid  gold-em- 
broidered coat,  jewelry,  glass  clasps,  long  brass  chains, 
a  figured  table-cloth,  fifteen  other  pieces  of  fine  cloth, 
and  a  japanned  tin  box  with  a  *  Chubb  '  lock.  Finally, 
gratified  by  such  liberality,  Ngalyema  surrendered  to 
me  his  sceptre,  which  consisted  of  a  long  staff,  banded 
profusely  with  brass,  and  decorated  with  coils  of  brass 
wire,  which  was  to  be  carried  by  me  and  shown  to  all 
men  that  I  was  the  brother  of  Ngalyema  [or,  Itsi]  of 
Ntamo  !  "  *  Some  time  after  this,  when  trouble  arose 
between  Stanley  and  Ngalyema,  the  former  suggested 
that  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  cancel  their  brother- 
hood. " '  No,  no,  no,'  cried  Ngalyema,  anxiously;  *  our 
brotherhood  cannot  be  broken ;  our  blood  is  now 
one.'"  Yet  at  this  time  Stanley's  brotherhood  with 
Ngalyema  was  only  by  the  blood  of  his  deceased 
retainer,  Frank  Pocock. 

More  commonly,  the  rite  of  blood-friendship  among 
the  African  tribes  seems  to  be  by  the  inter-transfusion 
of  blood;  but  the  ancient   Syrian  method  is  by  no 

/  means  unknown  on  that  continent.     Stanley  tells  of 

/ 

,  one  crisis  of  hunger,  among  the  cannibals  of  Rubunga, 
when  the  hostility  of  the  natives  on  the  river  bank 
was  averted  by  a  shrewd  display  of  proffered  trinkets 
from  the  boats  of  the  expedition.  "We  raised  our 
anchor,"  he  says,  "  and  with  two  strokes  of  the  oars 
*  The  Congo ^  I.,  304-312. 


A   CANNIBALISTIC  CEREMONY.  29 

had  run  our  boat  ashore ;  and,  snatching  a  string  or 
two  of  cowries  [or  shell-money],  I  sprang  on  land, 
followed  by  the  coxswain  Uledi,  and  in  a  second  I  had 
seized  the  skinny  hand  of  the  old  chief,  and  was 
pressing  it  hard  for  joy.  Warm-hearted  Uledi,  who 
the  moment  before  was  breathing  furious  hate  of  all 
savages,  and  of  the  procrastinating  old  chief  in  particu- 
lar, embraced  him  with  a  filial  warmth.  Young  Saywa, 
and  Murabo,  and  Shumari,  prompt  as  tinder  upon  all 
occasions,  grasped  the  lesser  chiefs'  hands,  and  devoted 
themselves  with  smiles  and  jovial  frank  bearing  to 
conquer  the  last  remnants  of  savage  sullenness,  and 
succeeded  so  well  that,  in  an  incredible  short  time,  the 
blood-brotherhood  ceremony  between  the  suddenly 
formed  friends  was  solemnly  entered  into,  and  the 
irrevocable  pact  of  peace  and  good  will  had  been 
accomplished."  ^ 

Apparently  unaware  of  the  method  of  the  ancient 
Semitic  rite,  here  found  in  a  degraded  form,  Stanley 
seems  surprised  at  the  mutual  tasting  of  blood  between 
the  contracting  friends,  in  this  instance.  He  says : 
"  Blood-brotherhood  was  a  beastly  cannibalistic  cere- 
mony with  these  people,  yet  much  sought  after, — 
whether  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  thirst  for  blood,  or 
that  it  involved  an  interchange  of  gifts,  of  which  they 
must  needs  reap  the  most  benefit.     After  an  incision 

1  Thro.  Dark  ConL,  II.,  281-283. 


30  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

was  made  in  each  arm,  both  brothers  bent  their  heads, 
and  the  aborigine  was  observed  to  suck  with  the  greatest 
fervor ;  whether  for  love  of  blood  or  excess  of  friend- 
^  ship,  it  would  be  difficult  to  say."^ 

During  his  latest  visit  to  Africa,  in  the  Congo  region, 
Stanley  had  many  another  occasion  to  enter  into  the 
covenant  of  blood  with  native  chiefs,  or  to  rest  on  that 
covenant  as  before  consummated.  His  every  descrip- 
tion of  the  rite  itself  has  its  value,  as  illustrating  the 
varying  forms  and  the  essential  unity  of  the  ceremony 
of  blood-covenanting,  the  world  over. 

A  reference  has  already  been  made^  to  Stanley's 
meeting,  on  this  expedition,  with  Ngalyema,  who, 
under  the  name  of  Itsi,  had  entered  into  blood-broth- 
erhood with  Frank  Pocock,  four  years  before.  That 
brotherhood  by  proxy  had  several  severe  strains,  in 
the  progress  of  negotiations  between  Stanley  and  Ngal- 
yema; and  after  some  eight  months  of  these  varying 
experiences,  it  was  urgently  pressed  on  Stanley  by  the 
chiefs  of  Kintamo  (which  is  another  name  for  Ntamo), 
that  he  should  personally  covenant  by  blood  with 
Ngalyema,  and  so  put  an  end  to  all  danger  of  conflict 
between  them.  To  this  Stanley  assented,  and  the 
record  of  the  transaction  is  given  accordingly,  under 
date  of  April  9,  1882:  "Brotherhood  with  Ngalye- 
ma was  performed.      We  crossed  arms;    an  incision 

*  Thro.  Dark  Cont.y  II.,  286.  2  See  pages  26-28,  supra. 


THE   VENICE  OF  THE  CONGO.  3 1 

was  made  in  each  arm ;  some  salt  was  placed  on  the 
wound,  and  then  a  mutual  rubbing  took  place,  while 
the  great  fetish  man  of  Kintamo  pronounced  an  incon- 
ceivable number  of  curses  on  my  head  if  ever  I  proved 
false.  Susi  [Livingstone's  head  man,  now  with  Stan-  ^ 
ley],  not  to  be  outdone  by  him,  solicited  the  gods  to 
visit  unheard-of  atrocious  vengeances  on  Ngalyema  if 
he  dared  to  make  the  slighest  breach  in  the  sacred 
brotherhood  which  made  him  and  Bula  Matari^  one 
and  indivisible  for  ever."  ^ 

In  June,  1883,  Stanley  visited,  by  invitation,  Man- 
gombo,  the  chief  of  Irebu,  on  the  Upper  Congo,  and 
became  his  blood-brother.  Describing  his  landing  at 
this  "Venice  of  the  Congo,"  he  says:  "  Mangombo, 
with  a  curious  long  staff,  a  fathom  and  a  half  in  length, 
having  a  small  spade  of  brass  at  one  end,  much  resem- 
bling a  baker's  cake-spade,  stood  in  front.  He  was  a 
man  probably  sixty  years  old,  but  active  and  by  no 
means  aged-looking,  and  he  waited  to  greet  me. 
.  .  .  Generally  the  first  day  of  acquaintance  with 
the  Congo  river  tribes  is  devoted  to  chatting,  sound- 
ing one  another's  principles,  and  getting  at  one  an- 
other's ideas.  The  chief  entertains  his  guest  with  gifts 
of  food,  goats,  beer,  fish,  &c. ;  then,  on  the  next  day, 

*"Bula  Matari,"  or  "Rock  Breaker,"  or  Road  Maker,  was  a  name 
given  to  Stanley  by  the  natives. 

^The  Congo,  I.,  383-385. 


32  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

commences  business  and  reciprocal  exchange  of  gifts. 
So  it  was  at  Irebu.  Mangombo  gave  four  hairy  thin- 
tailed  sheep,  ten  glorious  bunches  of  bananas,  two 
great  pots  of  beer,  and  the  usual  accompaniments  of 
small  stores.  The  next  day  we  made  blood-brother- 
hood. The  fetish-man  pricked  each  of  our  right  arms, 
pressed  the  blood  out ;  then,  with  a  pinch  of  scrapings 
from  my  gun  stock,  a  little  salt,  a  few  dusty  scrapings 
from  a  long  pod,  dropped  over  the  wounded  arms, 
.  .  .  the  black  and  white  arms  were  mutually  rubbed 
together  [for  the  inter-transfusion  of  the  flowing 
blood].  The  fetish-man  took  the  long  pod  in  his 
hand,  and  slightly  touched  our  necks,  our  heads,  our 
arms,  and  our  legs,  muttering  rapidly  his  litany  of 
incantations.  What  was  left  of  the  medicine  Man- 
gombo and  I  carefully  folded  in  a  banana  leaf  [Was 
this  the  *  house  of  the  amulet  ? '  ^],  and  we  bore  it 
reverently  between  us  to  a  banana  grove  close  by,  and 
buried  the  dust  out  of  sight.  Mangombo,  now  my 
brother,  by  solemn  interchange  of  blood, — consecrated 
to  my  service,  as  I  was  devoted  in  the  sacred  fetish 
bond  to  his  service, — revealed  his  trouble,  and  im- 
plored my  aid."  ^ 

Yet  again,  Stanley  "made  friendship"  with  the 
Bakuti,  at  Wangata,  "after  the  customary  forms  of 
blood-brotherhood  "  ;  ^  similarly  with  two  chiefs,  luka 

1  See  page  7  f.,  supra.      *  The  Congo,  II.,  21-24.      « Ibid.,  II.,  38. 


AN  AFRICAN  HERCULES.  33 

and  Mungawa,  at  Lukolela ;  ^  with  Miyongo  of  Usin- 
di;^  and  with  the  chiefs  of  Bolombo  ;^  of  Yambinga,'* 
of  Mokulu/  of  Irungu,^  of  Upoto/  of  Uranga;^  and 
so  all  along  his  course  of  travel.  One  of  the  fullest 
and  most  picturesque  of  his  descriptions  of  this 
rite,  is  in  connection  with  its  observance  with  a  son 
of  the  great  chief  of  the  Bangala,  at  Iboko ;  and  the 
main  details  of  that  description  are  worthy  of  repro- 
duction here. 

The  Bangala,  or  "  the  Ashantees  of  the  Livingstone 
River,"  as  Stanley  characterizes  them,  are  a  strong 
and  a  superior  people,  and  they  fought  fiercely  against 
Stanley,  when  he  was  passing  their  country  in  1877.^ 
"  The  senior  chief,  Mata  Bwyki  (lord  of  many  guns), 
was  [now,  in  October,  1883,]  an  old  grey-haired  man," 
says  Stanley,  "  of  Herculean  stature  and  breadth  of 
shoulder,  with  a  large  square  face,  and  an  altogether 
massive  head,  out  of  which  his  solitary  eye  seemed  to 
glare  with  penetrative  power.  I  should  judge  him  to 
be  six  feet,  two  inches,  in  height.  He  had  a  strong, 
sonorous  voice,  which,  when  lifted  to  speak  to  his 
tribe,  was  heard  clearly  several  hundred  yards  off 
He  was  now  probably  between  seventy-five  and  eighty 

"^  The  Congo,!!.,  \%.  ^  Ibid.,  11.,  6^.  ^  Ibid.,\l.,^^. 

^Ibid.,  IL,  109.  '^Ibid.,  II.,  118.  ^Ibid.,  II.,  132. 

"^Ibid.,  IL,  171.  ^Ibid.,  IL,  177. 

9  Thro.  Dark  Cont.,  IL,  297-302. 


34  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

years  old.  .  .  .  He  was  not  the  tallest  man,  nor 
the  best  looking,  nor  the  sweetest-dispositioned  man,  I 
had  met  in  all  Africa;  but  if  the  completeness  and 
perfection  of  the  human  figure,  combining  size  with 
strength,  and  proportion  of  body,  limbs,  and  head, 
with  an  expression  of  power  in  the  face,  be  considered, 
he  must  have  been  at  one  time  the  grandest  type  of 
physical  manhood  to  be  found  in  Equatorial  Africa. 
As  he  stood  before  us  on  this  day,  we  thought  of  him 
as  an  ancient  Milo,  an  aged  Hercules,  an  old  Samson — 
a  really  grand  looking  old  man.  At  his  side  were  seven 
tall  sons,  by  different  mothers,  and  although  they  were 
stalwart  men  and  boys,  the  whitened  crown  of  Mata 
Bwyki's  head  rose  by  a  couple  of  inches  above  the 
highest  head." 

Nearly  two  thousand  persons  assembled,  at  Iboko, 
to  witness  the  "  palaver  "  that  must  precede  a  decision 
to  enter  into  "  strong  friendship."  At  the  place  of 
meeting,  "  mats  of  split  rattan  were  spread  in  a  large 
semicircle  around  a  row  of  curved  and  box  stools,  for 
the  principal  chiefs.  In  the  centre  of  the  line,  opposite 
this,  was  left  a  space  for  myself  and  people,"  continues 
Stanley.  "We  had  first  to  undergo  the  process  of 
steady  and  silent  examination  from  nearly  two  thous- 
and pairs  of  eyes.  Then,  after  Yumbila,  the  guide,  had 
detailed  in  his  own  manner,  who  we  were,  and  what  was 
our  mission  up  the  great  river ;  how  we  had  built  towns 


THE  SEVERED  BRANCH.  35 

at  many  places,  and  made  blood-brotherhood  with  the 
chiefs  of  great  districts,  such  as  Irebu,  Ukuti,  Usindi, 
Ngombe,  Lukolela,  Bolobo,  Mswata,  and  Kintamo,  he 
urged  upon  them  the  pleasure  it  would  be  to  me  to 
make  a  like  compact,  sealed  with  blood,  with  the  great 
chiefs  of  populous  Iboko.  He  pictured  the  benefits 
likely  to  accrue  to  Iboko,  and  Mata  Bwyki  in  particu- 
lar, if  a  bond  of  brotherhood  was  made  between  two 
chiefs  like  Mata  Bwyki  and  Tandelay,  [Stanley,]  or  as 
he  was  known,  Bula  Matari." 

There  was  no  prompt  response  to  Stanley's  request 
for  strong  friendship  with  the  Bangala.  There  were 
prejudices  to  be  removed,  and  old  memories  to  be 
overborne ;  and  Yumbila's  eloquence  and  tact  were 
put  to  their  severest  test,  in  the  endeavor  to  bring 
about  a  state  of  feeling  that  would  make  the  covenant 
of  blood  a  possibility  here.  But  the  triumph  was  won. 
"A  forked  palm  branch  was  brought,"  says  Stanley. 
"  Kokoro,  the  heir  [of  Mata  Bwyki],  came  forward, 
seized  it,  and  kneeled  before  me ;  as,  drawing  out  his 
short  falchion,  he  cried,  *  Hold  the  other  branch,  Bula 
Matari !'  I  obeyed  him,  and  lifting  his  hand  he  cleaved 
the  branch  in  two.  *  Thus,'  he  said,  *  I  declare  my 
wish  to  be  your  brother.' 

"  Then  a  fetish-man  came  forward  with  his  lancets, 
long  pod,  pinch  of  salt,  and  fresh  green  banana  leaf. 
He  held  the  staff  of  Kokoro's  sword-bladed  spear, 


36  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

while  one  of  my  rifles  was  brought  from  the  steamer. 
The  shaft  of  the  spear  and  the  stock  of  the  rifle  were 
then  scraped  on  the  leaf,  a  pinch  of  salt  was  dropped 
on  the  wood,  and  finally  a  little  dust  from  the  long 
pod  was  scraped  on  the  curious  mixture.  Then,  our 
arms  were  crossed, — the  white  arm  over  the  brown 
arm, — and  an  incision  was  made  in  each  ;  and  over  the 
blood  was  dropped  a  few  grains  of  the  dusty  com- 
pound ;  and  the  white  arm  was  rubbed  over  the  brown 
arm  [in  the  intermingling  of  blood]." 

"  Now  Mata  Bwyki  lifted  his  mighty  form,  and  with 
his  long  giant's  staff  drove  back  the  compressed 
crowd,  clearing  a  wide  circle,  and  then  roaring  out  in 
his  most  magnificent  style,  leonine  in  its  lung-force, 
kingly  in  its  effect :  *  People  of  Iboko !  You  by  the 
river  side,  and  you  of  inland.  Men  of  the  Bangala, 
listen  to  the  words  of  Mata  Bwyki.  You  see  Tande- 
lay  before  you.  His  other  name  is  Bula  Matari.  He 
is  the  man  with  the  many  canoes,  and  has  brought 
back  strange  smoke-boats.  He  has  come  to  see  Mata 
Bwyki.  He  has  asked  Mata  Bwyki  to  be  his  friend. 
Mata  Bwyki  has  taken  him  by  the  hand,  and  has  be- 
come his  blood-brother.  Tandelay  belongs  to  Iboko 
now.  He  has  become  this  day  one  of  the  Bangala. 
O,  Iboko !  listen  to  the  voice  of  Mata  Bwyki.'  (I 
thought  they  must  have  been  incurably  deaf,  not  to 
have  heard  that  voice).   'Bula  Matari  and  Mata  Bwyki 


THE  FIFTIETH  BROTHER,  37 

are  one  to-day.  We  have  joined  hands.  Hurt  not 
Bula  Matari's  people ;  steal  not  from  them ;  offend 
them  not.  Bring  food  and  sell  to  him  at  a  fair  price, 
gently,  kindly,  and  in  peace ;  for  he  is  my  brother. 
Hear  you,  ye  people  of  Iboko — ^you  by  the  river 
side,  and  you  of  the  interior  ?' 

"  '  We  hear,  Mata  Bwyki  I '  shouted  the  multitude."^ 
And  the  ceremony  was  ended. 

A  little  later  than  this,  Stanley,  or  Tandelay,  or 
Bula  Matari,  as  the  natives  called  him,  was  at  Bumba, 
and  there  again  he  exchanged  blood  in  friendship. 
"  Myombi,  the  chief,"  he  says,  "  was  easily  persuaded 
by  Yumbila  to  make  blood-brotherhood  with  me ;  and 
for  the  fiftieth  time  my  poor  arm  was  scarified,  and 
my  blood  shed  for  the  cause  of  civilization.  Probably 
one  thousand  people  of  both  sexes  looked  on  the 
scene,  wonderingly  and  strangely.  A  young  branch 
of  a  palm  was  cut,  twisted,  and  a  knot  tied  at  each 
end  ;  the  knots  were  dipped  in  wood  ashes,  and  then 
seized  and  held  by  each  of  us,  while  the  medicine- 
man practised  his  blood-letting  art,  and  lanced  us  both, 
until  Myombi  winced  with  pain ;  after  which  the 
knotted  branch  was  severed ;  and,  in  some  incompre- 
hensible manner,  I  had  become  united  forever  to  my 
fiftieth  brother ;  to  whom  I  was  under  the  obligation 
of  defending  [him]  against  all  foes  until  death."  ^ 

»  The  Congo,  II.,  79-90.  « Ibid.,  II.,  104  f. 

4 


38  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

The  blood  of  a  fair  proportion  of  all  the  first  fami- 
lies of  Equatorial  Africa  now  courses  in  Stanley's 
veins ;.  and  if  ever  there  was  an  American  citizen  who 
could  appropriate  to  himself  preeminently  the  national 
motto,  "E  pluribus  unum/'  Stanley  is  the  man. 

The  root-idea  of  this  rite  of  blood-friendship  seems 
to  include  the  belief,  that  the  blood  is  the  life  of  a 
Hving  being ;  not  merely  that  the  blood  is  essential  to 
life,  but  that,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  it  is  life  ;  that  it 
actually  vivifies  by  its  presence ;  and  that  by  its  pass- 
ing from  one  organism  to  another  it  carries  and 
imparts  life.  The  inter-commingling  of  the  blood  of 
two  organisms  is,  therefore,  according  to  this  view, 
equivalent  to  the  inter-commingling  of  the  lives,  of  the 
personalities,  of  the  natures,  thus  brought  together; 
so  that  there  is,  thereby  and  thenceforward,  one  life  in 
the  two  bodies,  a  common  life  between  the  two  friends : 
a  thought  which  Aristotle  recognizes  in  his  citation  of 
the  ancient  "  proverb  "  :  "  One  soul  [in  two  bodies],"  ^ 
a  proverb  which  has  not  lost  its  currency  in  any  of  the 
centuries. 

That  the  blood  can  retain  its  vivifying  power  whether 
passing  into  another  by  way  of  the  lips  or  by  way  of  the 
veins,  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  no  less  plausible,  than  that 

*  Aristotle's  Ethics^  IX.,  8,  3.  This  is  not  made  as  an  original  state- 
ment, by  Aristotle,  but  as  the  citation  of  one  of  the  well-known 
*•  proverbs  "  of  friendship. 


LEGENDS  OF  THE  NORSELAND.  39 

the  administering  of  stimulants,  tonics,  nutriments, 
nervines,  or  anaesthetics,  hypodermically,  may  be 
equally  potent,  in  certain  cases,  with  the  more  common 
and  normal  method  of  seeking  assimilation  by  the 
process  of  digestion.  That  the  blood  of  the  living  has 
a  peculiar  vivifying  force,  in  its  transference  from  one 
organism  to  another,  is  one  of  the  clearly  proven  re-dis- 
closures of  modern  medical  science  ;  and  this  transfer- 
ence of  blood  has  been  made  to  advantage  by  way  of 
the  veins,  of  the  stomach,  of  the  intestines,  of  the  tissue, 
and  even  of  the  lungs — through  dry-spraying.-^ 


4.   TRACES   OF   THE   RITE    IN   EUROPE.^ 


Different  methods  of  observing  this  primitive  rite 
of  blood-covenanting  are  indicated  in  the  legendary 
lore  of  the  Norseland  peoples ;  and  these  methods,  in 
all  their  variety,  give  added  proof  of  the  ever  under- 
lying idea  of  an  inter-commingling  of  lives  through 
an  inter-commingling  of  blood.  Odin  was  the  benefi- 
cent god  of  light  and  knowledge,  the  promoter  of 
heroism,  and  the  protector  of  sacred  covenants,  in  the 
mythology  of  the  North.  Loke,  or  Lok,  on  the  other 
hand,  was   the   discordant  and    corrupting  divinity; 

1  See  Nouveau  Dictionnaire  de  Medecine  et  de  Chirurgie  Pratiques, 
(ed.  1884)  s.  V.  "  Transfusion."  ^  See  Appendix,  infra. 


40  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

symbolizing,  in  his  personality,  "  sin,  shrewdness, 
deceitfulness,  treachery,  malice,"  and  other  phases  of 
evil.^  In  the  poetic  myths  of  the  Norseland,  it  is 
claimed  that  at  the  beginning  Odin  and  Loke  were  in 
close  union  instead  of  being  at  variance;^  just  as  the 
Egyptian  cosmogony  made  Osiris  and  Set  in  original 
accord,  although  in  subsequent  hostility;'^  and  as  the 
Zoroastrians  claimed  that  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  were 
at  one,  before  they  were  in  conflict.*  Odin  and  Loke 
are,  indeed,  said  to  have  been,  at  one  time,  in  the  close 
and  sacred  union  of  blood-friendship ;  having  coven- 
anted in  that  union  by  mingling  their  blood  in  a  bowl, 
and  drinking  therefrom  together. 

The  Elder  Edda,^  or  the  earliest  collection  of  Scan- 
dinavian songs,  makes  reference  to  this  confraternity  of 
Odin  and  Loke.  At  a  banquet  of  the  gods,  Loke, 
who  had  not  been  invited,  found  an  entrance,  and 
there  reproached  his  fellow  divinities  for  their  hostility 
to  him.  Recalling  the  indissoluble  tie  of  blood-friend- 
ship, he  said : 

^  See  Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero-  Worships  Lect.  I. ;  also  Anderson's 
Norse  Mythology^  pp .  2 1 5-2  20  ;  3  7 1  -3  74 . 

'  See  Anderson's  Norse  Mythol.,  pp.  372,  408  f. 

'  See  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians^  III.,  142 ;  Renouf  s  The  Religion 
of  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  Ii8  f. ;  Ebers's  Picturesque  Egypt,  I,,  lOO  f. 

*  See  De  Wette's  Biblische  Dogmatik,  \  79. 

6 See  Carlyle's  Hero  Worship,\jtzi.  I. 


THE  BLOOD-BURIAL.  41 

"  Father  of  Slaughter,^  Odin,  say, 
Rememberest  not  the  former  day, 
"When  ruddy  in  the  goblet  stood, 
For  mutual  drink,  our  blended  blood? 
Rememberest  not,  thou  then  didst  swear, 
The  festive  banquet  ne'er  to  share, 
Unless  thy  brother  Lok  was  there?" 

In  citing  this  illustration  of  the  ancient  rite,  a 
modern  historian  of  chivalry  has  said :  "  Among  bar- 
barous people  [the  barbarians  of  Europe]  the  fraternity 
of  arms  [the  sacred  brotherhood  of  heroes]  was  estab- 
lished by  the  horrid  custom  of  the  new  brothers  drink- 
ing each  other's  blood ;  but  if  this  practice  was  barba- 
rous, nothing  was  farther  from  barbarism  than  the 
sentiment  which  inspired  it"^ 

Another  of  the  methods  by  which  the  rite  of  blood- 
friendship  was  observed  in  the  Norseland,  was  by 
causing  the  blood  of  the  two  covenanting  persons  to 
inter-flow  from  their  pierced  hands,  while  they  lay 
together  underneath  a  lifted  sod.  The  idea  involved 
seems  to  have  been,  the  burial  of  the  two  individuals, 
in  their  separate  personal  lives,  and  the  intermingling 
of  those  lives — ^by  the  intermingling  of  their  blood — 
while  in  their  temporary  grave ;    in  order  to  their 

*  Odin  "  is  the  author  of  war."  He  is  called  "  Valfather  (Father  of  the 
slain),  because  he  chooses  for  his  sons  all  who  fall  in  combat."  Ander- 
son's Norse  MythoL,  p.  215  f. 

'  Mills's  History  of  Chivalry ^  chap.  IV. 


42  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

rising  again  with  a  common  life^ — one  life,  one  soul,  in 
two  bodies.  Thus  it  is  told,  in  one  of  the  Icelandic 
Sagas,  of  Thorstein,  the  heroic  son  of  Viking,  proffer- 
ing "  foster-brotherhood,"  or  blood-friendship,  to  the 
valiant  Angantyr,  Jarl  of  the  Orkneys.  "  Then  this 
was  resolved  upon,  and  secured  by  firm  pledges  on 
both  sides.  They  opened  a  vein  in  the  hollow  of  their 
hands,  crept  beneath  the  sod,  and  there  [with  clasped 
hands  inter-blood-flowing]  they  solemnly  swore  that 
each  of  them  should  avenge  the  other  if  any  one 
of  them  should  be  slain  by  weapons."  This  was,  in 
fact,  a  three-fold  covenant  of  blood ;  for  King  Bele, 
who  had  just  been  in  combat  with  Angantyr,  was 
already  in  blood-friendship  with  Thorstein.^ 

The  rite  of  blood-friendship,  in  one  form  and  another 
finds  frequent  mention  in  the  Norseland  Sagas.  Thus,  in 
the  Saga  of  Fridthjof  the  Bold,  the  son  of  Thorstein  : 

"  Champions  twelve,  too,  had  he — gray -haired,  and  princes  in  exploits, — 
Comrades  his  father  had  loved,  steel-breasted  and  scarred  o'er  the 

forehead. 
Last  on  the  champions'  bench,  equal- aged  with  Fridthjof,  a  stripling 
Sat,  like  a  rose  among  withered  leaves;  Bjorn  called  they  the  hero — 
Glad  as  a  child,  but  firm  like  a  man,  and  yet  wise  as  a  graybeard; 
Up  with  Fridthjof  he'd  grown ;  they  had  mingled  blood  with  each  other, 
Foster-brothers  in  Northman  wise;  and  they  swore  to  continue 
Steadfast  in  weal  and  woe,  each  other  revenging  in  battle."  ' 

1  Rom.  6  :  4-6;  Col.  2  :  12 
'Anderson's  Viking  Tales  of  the  North,  p.  59.        ^  Ibid.,  p.  191  f. 


THE  RITE  IN  CHINA.  43 

A  vestige  of  this  primitive  rite,  coming  down  to  us 
through  European  channels,  is  found,  as  are  so  many 
other  traces  of  primitive  rites,  in  the  inherited  folk-lore 
of  English-speaking  children  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic. An  American  clergyman's  wife  said  recently, 
on  this  point :  "  I  remember,  that  while  I  was  a  school- 
girl, it  was  the  custom,  when  one  of  our  companions 
pricked  her  finger,  so  that  the  blood  came,  for  one  or 
another  of  us  to  say  *0h,  let  me  suck  the  blood;  then 
we  shall  be  friends.' "  And  that  is  but  an  illustration 
of  the  outreaching  after  this  indissoluble  bond,  on  the 
part  of  thirty  generations  of  children  of  Norseland  and 
Anglo-Saxon  stock,  since  the  days  of  Fridthjof  and 
Bjorn ;  as  that  same  yearning  had  been  felt  by  those 
of  a  hundred  generations  before  that  time. 

5.   WORLD-WIDE   SWEEP   OF   THE   RITE. 

Concerning  traces  of  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting  in 
China,  where  there  are  to  be  found  fewest  resemblances 
to  the  primitive  customs  of  the  Asiatic  Semites,  Dr. 
Yung  Wing,  the  eminent  Chinese  educationalist  and 
diplomat,  gives  me  the  following  illustration  :  "  In  the 
year  1674,  when  KSnhi  was  Emperor,  of  the  present 
dynasty,  we  find  that  the  Buddhist  priests  of  Shanlin 
Monastery  in  Fuhkin  Province  had  rebelled  against 
the  authorities  on  account  of  persecution.  In  their 
encounters  with  the  troops,  they  fought  against  great 


44  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

odds,  and  were  finally  defeated  and  scattered  in  differ- 
ent provinces,  where  they  organized  centres  of  the 
Triad  Society,  which  claims  an  antiquity  dated  as  far 
back  as  the  Freemasons  of  the  West.  Five  of  these 
priests  fled  to  the  province  of  Hakwong,  and  there, 
Chin  Kinnan,  a  member  of  the  Hanlin  College,  who 
was  degraded  from  office  by  his  enemies,  joined  them; 
and  it  is  said  that  they  drank  blood,  and  took  the 
oath  of  brotherhood,  to  stand  by  each  other  in  life 
or  death." 

Along  the  southwestern  border  of  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire, in  Burmah,  this  rite  of  blood-friendship  is  still 
practiced;  as  may  be  seen  from  illustrations  of  it,  which 
are  given  in  the  Appendix  of  this  work. 

In  his  History  of  Madagascar,  the  Rev.  William 
Ellis,  tells  of  this  rite  as  he  observed  it  in  that  island, 
and  as  he  learned  of  it  from  Borneo.     He  says : 

"Another  popular  engagement  in  use  among  the  Ma- 
lagasy is  that  of  forming  brotherhoods,  which  though 
not  peculiar  to  them,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
usages  of  the  country.  .  .  .  Its  object  is  to  cement 
two  individuals  in  the  bonds  of  most  sacred  friend- 
ship. .  .  .  More  than  two  may  thus  associate,  if 
they  please  ;  but  the  practice  is  usually  limited  to  that 
number,  and  rarely  embraces  more  than  three  or  four 
individuals.  It  is  called  fatriddy  i.  e.,  *  dead  blood,' 
either  because  the  oath  is  taken  over  the  blood  of  a 


THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  HEART.  45 

fowl  killed  for  the  occasion,  or  because  a  small  portion 
of  blood  is  drawn  from  each  individual,  when  thus 
pledging  friendship,  and  drunk  by  those  to  whom 
friendship  is  pledged,  with  execrations  of  vengeance 
on  each  other  in  case  of  violating  the  sacred  oath. 
To  obtain  the  blood,  a  slight  incision  is  made  in  the 
skin  covering  the  centre  of  the  bosom,  significantly 
called  ambavafo^  'the  mouth  of  the  heart.'  Allusion 
is  made  to  this,  in  the  formula  of  this  tragi-comical 
ceremony. 

"  When  two  or  more  persons  have  agreed  on  form- 
ing this  bond  of  fraternity,  a  suitable  place  and  hour 
are  determined  upon,  and  some  gunpowder  and  a  ball 
are  brought,  together  with  a  small  quantity  of  ginger, 
a  spear,  and  two  particular  kinds  of  grass.  A  fowl  also 
is  procured ;  its  head  is  nearly  cut  off;  and  it  is  left  in 
this  state  to  continue  bleeding  during  the  ceremony.^. 

"  The  parties  then  pronounce  a  long  form  of  im- 
precation, and  [a]  mutual  vow,  to  this  effect : — '  Should 
either  of  us  prove  disloyal  to  the  sovereign,  or  un- 
faithful to  each  other,^  then  perish  the  day,  and  perish 

^  Apparently  these  articles  form  a  "  heap  of  witness,"  or  are  the  aggre- 
gated symbolic  witnesses  of  the  transaction ;  as  something  answering  to 
this  usage  is  found  in  connection  with  the  rite  in  various  parts  of  the 
world. 

'  He  who  would  be  true  in  friendship  must  be  true  in  all  things.  The 
good  friend  is  a  good  citizen.     See  i  Peter  2: 17. 


46  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  night.^  Awful  is  that,  solemn  is  that,  which  we  are 
now  both  about  to  perform !  O  the  mouth  of  the  heart ! 
— this  is  to  be  cut,  and  we  shall  drink  each  other's 
blood.  O  this  ball !  O  this  powder !  O  this  ginger ! 
O  this  fowl  weltering  in  its  blood ! — it  shall  be  killed, 
it  shall  be  put  to  excruciating  agonies, — it  shall  be 
killed  by  us,  it  shall  be  speared  at  this  corner  of  the 
hearth  (Alakaforo  or  Adimizam,  S.  W.)  And  who- 
ever would  seek  to  kill  or  injure  us,  to  injure  our 
wives,  or  our  children,  to  waste  our  money  or  our 
property ;  or  if  either  of  us  should  seek  to  do  what 
would  not  be  approved  of  by  the  king  or  by  the 
people ;  should  one  of  us  deceive  the  other  by  making 
that  which  is  unjust  appear  just;  should  one  accuse 
the  other  falsely ;  should  either  of  us  with  our  wives 
and  children  be  lost  and  reduced  to  slavery,  (forbid 
that  such  should  be  our  lot !) — then,  that  good  may 
arise  out  of  evil,  we  follow  this  custom  of  the  people ; 
and  we  do  it  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  one  another 
with  our  families,  if  lost  in  slavery,  by  whatever  prop- 
erty either  of  us  may  possess;  for  our  wives  are  as  one 
to  us,  and  each  other's  children  as  his  own,^  and  our 
riches  as  common  property.  O  the  mouth  of  the  heart! 
O  the  ball !  O  the  powder !  O  the  ginger !  O  this 
miserable  fowl  weltering  in  its  blood ! — thy  liver  do  we 

1  See  Job  3  :  2-9. 
'  Here  is  the  idea  of  an  absolute  inter-merging  of  natures,  by  this  rite. 


OBJECTS  OF  DESIRE.  47 

eat,  thy  liver  do  we  eat.  And  should  either  of  us 
retract  from  the  terms  of  this  oath,  let  him  instantly- 
become  a  fool,  let  him  instantly  become  blind,  let  this 
covenant  prove  a  curse  to  him:  let  him  not  be  a 
human  being :  let  there  be  no  heir  to  inherit  after  him, 
but  let  him  be  reduced,  and  float  with  the  water  never  to 
see  its  source ;  let  him  never  obtain  ;  what  is  out  of 
doors,  may  it  never  enter  ;  and  what  is  within  may  it 
never  go  out ;  the  little  obtained,  may  he  be  deprived 
of  it;^  and  let  him  never  obtain  justice  from  the  sove- 
reign nor  from  the  people !  But  if  we  keep  and  observe 
this  covenant,  let  these  things  bear  witness.^  O  mouth 
of  the  heart !  (repeating  as  before), — may  this  cause  us 
to  live  long  and  happy  with  our  wives  and  our  chil- 
dren ;  may  we  be  approved  by  the  sovereign,  and 
beloved  by  the  people ;  may  we  get  money,  may  we 
obtain  property,  cattle,  &c. ;  may  we  marry  wives, 
{vady  kely)  ;  may  we  have  good  robes,  and  wear  a 
good  piece  of  cloth  on  our  bodies  ;^  since,  amidst  our 
toils  and  labor,  these  are  the  things  we  seek  after.* 
And  this  we  do  that  we  may  with  all  fidelity  assist 
each  other  to  the  last.' 

*SeeMatt.  13:  12;  25:  29. 
'  Here  is  an  indication  of  the  witness-bearing  nature  of  these  acces- 
sories of  the  rite. 

^  Compare  these  blessings  and  cursings  with  those  under  the  Mosaic 
laws  :  Deut.  27  :  9-26 ;  28  :   1-68. 

*See  Matt.  6:  31,  32. 


48  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

"  The  incision  is  then  made,  as  already  mentioned ; 
a  small  quantity  of  blood  [is]  extracted  and  drank  by 
the  covenanting  parties  respectively,  [they]  saying  as 
they  take  it,  *  These  are  our  last  words.  We  will 
/be  like  rice  and  water ;^  in  town  they  do  not  separate, 
'  and  in  the  fields  they  do  not  forsake  one  another ;  we 
will  be  as  the  right  and  left  hand  of  the  body ;  if  one 
be  injured,  the  other  necessarily  sympathizes  and 
suffers  with  it."  ^ 

Speaking  of  the  terms  and  the  influence  of  this  cove- 
nant, in  Madagascar,  Mr.  Ellis  says,  that  while  absolute 
community  of  all  worldly  possessions  is  not  a  literal 
fact  on  the  part  of  these  blood-friends,  "  the  engage- 
ment involves  a  sort  of  moral  obligation  for  one  to 
assist  the  other  in  every  extremity."  "  However  devoid 
of  meaning,"  he  adds,  "  some  part  of  the  ceremony  of 
forming  [this]  brotherhood  may  appear,  and  whatever 
indications  of  barbarity  of  feeling  may  appear  in  others, 
it  is  less  exceptionable  than  many  [of  the  rites]  that 
prevail  among  the  people.  ...  So  far  as  those 
who  have  resided  in  the  country  have  observed  its 
effects,  they  appear  almost  invariably  to  have  been  safe 

1 "  This  is  a  natural,  simple,  and  beautiful  allusion  in  common  use 
among  the  Malagasy,  to  denote  an  inseparable  association.  The  rice  is 
planted  in  water,  grows  in  water,  is  boiled  in  water,  and  water  is  the 
universal  beverage  taken  with  it  when  eaten." 

'  Ellis's  Hist,  of  Madagascar t  I.,  187-190. 


BORNEO  BLOOD-BROTHERHOOD.  49 

to  the  community,  and  beneficial  to  the  individuals  by 
whom  the  compact  was  formed." 

Yet  again,  this  covenant  of  blood-friendship  is  found 
in  different  parts  of  Borneo.  In  the  days  of  Mr.  Ellis, 
the  Rev.  W.  Medhurst,  a  missionary  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  in  Java,  described  it,  in  reporting 
a  visit  made  to  the  Dayaks  of  Borneo,  by  one  of  his 
assistants  together  with  a  missionary  of  the  Rhenish 
Missionary  Society.^ 

Telling  of  the  kindly  greeting  given  to  these  visitors 
at  a  place  called  Golong,  he  says  that  the  natives 
wished  "to  establish  a  fraternal  agreement  with  the 
missionaries,  on  condition  that  the  latter  should  teach 
them  the  ways  of  God.  The  travelers  replied,  that  if 
the  Dayaks  became  the  disciples  of  Christ,  they  would 
be  constituted  the  brethren  of  Christ  without  any 
formal  compact.  The  Dayaks,  however,  insisted  that 
the  travelers  should  enter  into  a  compact  [with  them], 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  by  means  of 
blood.  The  missionaries  were  startled  at  this,  think- 
ing that  the  Dayaks  meant  to  murder  them,  and  com- 
mitted themselves  to  their  Heavenly  Father,  praying 
that,  whether  living  or  dying,  they  might  lie  at  the 
feet  of  their  Saviour.  It  appears,  however,  that  it  is 
the  custom  of  the  Dayaks,  when  they  enter  into  a 
covenant,  to  draw  a  little  blood  from  the  arms  of  the 

1  Cited  in  Ellis's  Hist,  of  Mad.,  I.,  I9I,  note. 
5 


50  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

covenanting  parties,  and,  having  mixed  it  with  water, 
each  to  drink,  in  this  way,  the  blood  of  the  other. 

"  Mr.  Barenstein  [one  of  the  missionaries]  having 
consented  [for  both]  to  the  ceremony,  they  all  took  off 
their  coats,  and  two  officers  came  forward  with  small 
knives,  to  take  a  little  blood  out  of  the  arm  of  each 
of  them  [the  two  missionaries  and  two  Dayak  chiefs]. 
This  being  mixed  together  in  four  glasses  of  water, 
they  drank,  severally,  each  from  the  glass  of  the  other ; 
after  which  they  joined  hands  and  kissed.  The  peo- 
ple then  came  forward,  and  made  obeisance  to  the 
missionaries,  as  the  friends  of  the  Dayak  King,  crying 
out  with  loud  voices,  '  Let  us  be  friends  and  brethren 
forever ;  and  may  God  help  the  Dayaks  to  obtain  the 
knowledge  of  God  from  the  missionaries ! '  The  two 
chiefs  then  said,  *  Brethren,  be  not  afraid  to  dwell  with 
us  ;  for  we  will  do  you  no  harm ;  and  if  others  wish 
to  hurt  you,  we  will  defend  you  with  our  life's  blood, 
and  die  ourselves  ere  you  be  slain.  God  be  witness, 
and  this  whole  assembly  be  witness,  that  this  is  true.' 
Whereupon  the  whole  company  shouted,  Balaak  !  or 
'  Good,'  '  Be  it  so.'  " 

Yet  another  method  of  observing  this  rite,  is  re- 
ported from  among  the  Kayans  of  Borneo ;  quite  a 
different  people  from  the  Dayaks.  Its  description  is 
from  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Spenser  St.  John,  as  follows : 
.>*  Sifigauding  [a  Kayan  chief]  sent  on  board  to  request 


THE   CIGARETTE  OF  PEACE.  5 1 

me  to  become  his  brother,  by  going  through  the 
sacred  custom  of  imbibing  each  other's  blood.  I  say 
imbibing,  because  it  is  either  mixed  with  water  and 
drunk,  or  else  is  placed  within  a  native  cigar,  and 
drawn  in  with  the  smoke.  I  agreed  to  do  so,  and  the 
following  day  was  fixed  for  the  ceremony.  It  is  called 
Berbiang  by  the  Kayans  ;  Bersabibah,  by  the  Borneans 
[the  Dayaks].  I  landed  with  our  party  of  Malays,  and 
after  a  preliminary  talk,  to  allow  the  population  to 
assemble,  the  affair  commenced.  .  .  .  Stripping 
my  left  arm,  Kum  Lia  took  a  small  piece  of  wood, 
shaped  like  a  knife -blade,  and,  slightly  piercing  the 
skin,  brought  blood  to  the  surface ;  this  he  carefully 
scraped  off.  Then  one  of  my  Malays  drew  blood  in 
the  same  way  from  Sifigauding ;  and,  a  small  cigarette 
being  produced,  the  blood  on  the  wooden  blade  was 
spread  on  the  tobacco.  A  chief  then  arose,  and,  walk- 
ing to  an  open  place,  looked  forth  upon  the  river,  and 
invoked  their  god  and  all  the  spirits  of  good  and  evil  to 
be  witness  of  this  tie  of  brotherhood.  The  cigarette 
[blood-stained]  was  then  lighted,  and  each  of  us  took 
several  puffs  [receiving  each  other's  blood  by  inhalation], 
and  the  ceremony  was  over."  ^  This  is  a  new  method  of 
smoking  the  "  pipe  of  peace  " — or,  the  cigarette  of  inter- 
union  !  Borneo,  indeed,  furnishes  many  illustrations 
of  primitive  customs,  both  social  and  religious.  ^ 

1  St.  John's  Life  in  the  Forests  of  the  Far  East,  I.,  I16  f. 


52  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

One  of  the  latest  and  most  venturesome  explorers 
of  North  Borneo  was  the  gallant  and  lamented  Frank 
Hatton,  a  son  of  the  widely  known  international  jour- 
nalist, Joseph  Hatton.  In  a  sketch  of  his  son's  life- 
work,  the  father  says^:  "  His  was  the  first  white  foot 
in  many  of  the  hitherto  unknown  villages  of  Borneo ; 
in  him  many  of  the  wild  tribes  saw  the  first  white  man. 
.  .  .  Speaking  the  language  of  the  natives,  and  possess- 
ing that  special  faculty  of  kindly  firmness  so  necessary 
to  the  efficient  control  of  uncivilized  peoples,  he  jour- 
neyed through  the  strange  land  not  only  unmolested, 
but  frequently  carrying  away  tokens  of  native  affec- 
tion. Several  powerful  chiefs  made  him  their  *  blood- 
brother';  and  here  and  there  the  tribes  prayed  to  him 
as  if  he  were  a  god."  It  would  seem  from  the  descrip- 
tion of  Mr.  Hatton,  that,  in  some  instances,  in  Borneo, 
the  blood-covenanting  is  by  the  substitute  blood  of  a 
fowl  held  by  the  two  parties  to  the  covenant,  while  its 
head  is  cut  off  by  a  third  person ;  without  any  drink- 
ing of  each  other's  blood  by  those  who  enter  into  the 
covenant.  Yet  however  this  may  be,  the  other  method 
still  prevails  there. 

Another  recent  traveler  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
who,  also,  is  a  trained  and  careful  observer,  tells  of  this 
rite,  as  he  found  it  in  Timor,  and  other  islands  of  that 
region,  among  a  people  who  represent  the  Malays, 

iln  "The  Century  Magazine  "  for  July,  1885,  p.  437. 


THE   TREE  OF  THE  COVENANT.  53 

the  Papuan,  and  the  Polynesian  races.  His  descrip- 
tion is  :  "  The  ceremony  of  blood-brotherhood,  .  .  . 
or  the  swearing  of  eternal  friendship,  is  of  an  interest- 
ing nature,  and  is  celebrated  often  by  fearful  orgies 
[excesses  of  the  communion  idea],  especially  when 
friendship  is  being  made  between  families,  or  tribes,  or 
kingdoms.  The  ceremony  is  the  same  in  substance 
whether  between  two  individuals,  or  [between]  large 
companies.  The  contracting  parties  slash  their  arms, 
and  collect  the  blood  into  a  bamboo,  into  which  kanipa 
(coarse  gin)  or  laru  (palm  wine)  is  poured.  Having 
provided  themselves  with  a  small  fig-tree  (halik)  they 
adjourn  to  some  retired  spot,  taking  with  them  the 
sword  and  spear  from  the  Luli  chamber  [the  sacred 
room]  of*  their  own  houses  if  between  private  individ- 
uals, or  from  the  Uma-Luli  of  their  suku  [the  sacred 
building  of  their  village]  if  between  large  companies. 
Planting  there  the  fig-tree,  flanked  by  the  sacred  sword 
and  spear,  they  hang  on  it  a  bamboo-receptacle,  into 
which — after  pledging  each  other  in  a  portion  of  the 
mixed  blood  and  gin — the  remainder  [of  that  mixture] 
is  poured.  Then  each  swears, '  If  I  be  false,  and  be  not 
a  true  friend,  may  my  blood  issue  from  my  mouth,  ears, 
nose,  as  it  does  from  this  bamboo  ! ' — the  bottom  of  the 
receptacle  being  pricked  at  the  same  moment,  to  allow 
the  blood  and  gin  to  escape.  The  [blood-stained]  tree 
remains  and  grows  as  a  witness  of  their  contract." 

5* 


54  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Of  the  close  and  binding  nature  of  this  blood-com- 
pact, among  the  Timorese,  the  observer  goes  on  to  say : 
/*f  It  is  one  of  their  most  sacred  oaths,  and  [is]  almost 
never,  I  am  told,  violated ;  at  least  between  individuals." 
As  to  its  limitless  force  and  scope,  he  adds :  "  One 
brother  [one  of  these  brother-friends  in  the  covenant 
of  blood]  coming  to  another  brother's  house,  is  in 
every  respect  regarded  as  free  [to  do  as  he  pleases], 
and  [is]  as  much  at  home  as  its  owner.  Nothing  is 
withheld  from  him ;  even  his  friend's  wife  is  not  denied 
him,  and  a  child  born  of  such  a  union  would  be  recog- 
nized by  the  husband  as  his ;  [for  are  not — as  they 
reason — ^these  brother-friends  of  one  blood — of  one  and 
N^  the  same  life  ?]  "  ^ 

The  covenant  of  blood-friendship  has  been  noted 
also  among  the  native  races  of  both  North  and  South 
America.  A  writer  of  three  centuries  ago,  told  of  it 
as  among  the  aborigines  of  Yucatan.  "  When  the  In- 
dians of  Pontonchan,"  he  said,  "receive  new  friends 
[covenant  in  a  new  friendship].  .  .  as  a  proof  of 
[their]  friendship,  they  [mutually,  each],  in  the  sight  of 
the  friend,  draw  some  blood  .  .  .  from  the  tongue, 
hand,  or  arm,  or  from  some  other  part  [of  the  body]  ."^ 

^  Forbes's  A  Naturalisf  s  Wanderings  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago^ 
p.  452. 

'  Peter  Martyr's  De  Rebus  Oceanicis  et  Novo  Orbe,  p.  t,t,'&  ;  cited  in 
Spencer's  Des.  Soc.  II.,  34. 


AMERICAN  BRO  THERHOOD.  5  5 

And  this  ceremony  is  said  to  have  formed  "  a  compact 
forHfe/'i 

In  Brazil,  the  Indians  were  said  to  have  a  rite  of 
brotherhood  so  close  and  sacred  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Bed'ween  beyond  the  Jordan,^  its  covenanting  par- 
ties were  counted  as  of  one  blood ;  so  that  marriage 
between  those  thus  linked  would  be  deemed  incestu- 
ous. "  There  was  a  word  in  their  language  to  express 
a  friend  who  was  loved  like  a  brother ;  it  is  written 
Atourrassap  [*  erroneously,  beyond  a  doubt,'  adds 
Southey,  '  because  their  speech  is  without  the  r '] . 
They  who  called  each  other  by  this  name,  had  all 
things  in  common ;  the  tie  was  held  to  be  as  sacred  as 
that  of  consanguinity,  and  one  could  not  marry  the 
daughter  or  sister  of  the  other."  ^ 

A  similar  tie  of  adopted  brotherhood,  or  of  close 
and  sacred  friendship,  is  recognized  among  the  North 
American  Indians.  Writing  of  the  Dakotas,  or  the 
Sioux,  Dr.  Riggs,  the  veteran  missionary  and  scholar, 
says :  "  Where  one  Dakota  takes  another  as  his  koda^ 
i.  e.,  god,  or  friend,  [Think  of  that,  for  sacredness  of 
union — '  god,  or  friend  ' !]  they  become  brothers  in  each 
other's  families,  and  are,  as  such,  of  course  unable  to 
intermarry.'"*     And  Burton,  the  famous  traveler,  who 

iSee  Bancroft's  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  I.,  741. 

^  See  page  10,  supra.  ^  Southey's  Brazil,  I.,  2^0. 

*  Lynd's  History  of  the  DakotciSp  p.  73,  not?. 


56  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

made  this  same  tribe  a  study,  says  of  the  Dakotas : 
"  They  are  fond  of  adoption,  and  of  making  brother- 
hoods Hke  the  Africans  [Burton  is  familiar  with  the 
customs  of  African  tribes] ;  and  so  strong  is  the  tie 
that  marriage  with  the  sister  of  an  adopted  brother  is 
within  the  prohibited  degree."  ^ 

Among  the  people  of  the  Society  Islands,  and  per- 
haps also  among  those  of  other  South  Sea  Islands, 
the  term  tayo  is  applied  to  an  attached  personal 
friend,  in  a  peculiar  relation  of  intimacy.  The  formal 
ceremony  of  brotherhood,  whereby  one  becomes  the 
tayo  of  another,  in  these  islands,  I  have  not  found 
described ;  but  the  closeness  and  sacredness  of  the 
relation,  as  it  is  held  by  many  of  the  natives,  would 
seem  to  indicate  the  inter-mingling  of  blood  in  the 
covenanting,  now  or  in  former  times.  The  early 
missionaries  to  those  islands,  speaking  of  the  prevalent 
unchastity  there,  make  this  exception  :  "  If  a  person  is 
a  tayo  of  the  husband,  he  must  indulge  in  no  liberties 
with  the  sisters  or  the  daughters,  because  they  are 
considered  as  his  own  sisters  or  daughters ;  and  incest 
is  held  in  abhorrence  by  them;  nor  will  any  tempta- 
tions engage  them  to  violate  this  bond  of  purity.  The 
wife,  however,  is  excepted,  and  C9nsidered  as  common 
property  for  the  tayo.^  Lieutenant  Corner  [a  still 
earlier  voyager]  also  added,  that  a  tayoship  formed 

*  Burton's  City  of  the  Saints y  p.  117.  *  See  page  54,  supra. 


ALL    THE   WORLD  AKIN.  57 

between  different  sexes  put  the  most  solemn  barrier 
against  all  personal  liberties."  ^  Here  is  evidenced  that 
same  view  of  the  absolute  oneness  of  nature  through 
a  oneness  of  blood,  which  shows  itself  among  the 
Semites  of  Syria,^  among  the  Malays  of  Timor/  and 
among  the  Indians  of  America.'' 

And  so  this  close  and  sacred  covenant  relation,  this^ 
rite  of  blood-friendship,  this  inter-oneness  of  life  by  an 
inter-oneness  of  blood,  shows  itself  in  the  primitive 
East,  and  in  the  wild  and  pre-historic  West;  in  the 
frozen  North,  as  in  the  torrid  South.  Its  traces  are 
everywhere.  It  is  of  old,  and  it  is  of  to-day ;  as  uni- 
versal and  as  full  of  meaning  as  life  itself. 

It  will   be  observed  that  we   have  already  noted 
proofs   of  the   independent  existence   of  this  rite  of 
blood-brotherhood,   or    blood-friendship,   among   the  | 
three  great  primitive  divisions  of  the  race — the  Semit- 
ic, the  Hamitic,  and  the  Japhetic;  and  this  in  Asia,  / 
Africa,  Europe,  America,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Sea ; 
again,  among  the  five  modern  and  more  popular  divis- 
ions  of  the   human   family:    Caucasian,    Mongolian,    | 
Ethiopian,  Malay,  and  American.     This  fact  in  itself 
would  seem  to  point  to  a  common  origin  of  its  various 
manifestations,  in  the  early  Oriental  home  of  the  liow    1 
scattered  peoples  of  the  world.     Many  references  to    ^ 

^  Miss.  Vogage  to  So.  Pacif.  Ocean,  p.  360  f. 
*  See  page  10,  j?//r«.    ^  See  page  54,  w^/ra.     ^See  page  55  f.,  j^/ra. 


58  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

this  rite,  in  the  pages  of  classic  literature,  seem  to 
have  the  same  indicative  bearing,  as  to  its  nature  and 
primitive  source. 

6.    LIGHT   FROM   THE   CLASSICS. 

Lucian,  the  bright  Greek  thinker,  who  was  born  and 
trained  in  the  East,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  of  our  era,  is  explicit  as  to  the  nature  and 
method  of  this  covenant  as  then  practised  in  the  East 
In  his  "  Toxaris  or  Friendship,"  ^  Mnesippus  the  Greek, 
and  Toxaris  the  Scythian,  are  discussing  friendship. 
Toxaris  declares :  "  It  can  easily  be  shown  that  Scy- 
thian friends  are  much  more  faithful  than  Greek 
friends ;  and  that  friendship  is  esteemed  more  highly 
among  us  than  among  you."  Then  Toxaris  goes  on 
to  say^ :  "  But  first  I  wish  to  tell  you  in  what  manner 
we  [in  Scythia]  make  friends ;  not  in  our  drinking 
bouts  as  you  do,  nor  simply  because  a  man  is  of  the 
same  age  [as  ourselves],  or  because  he  is  our  neigh- 
bor. But,  on  the  contrary,  when  we  see  a  good  man, 
and  one  capable  of  great  deeds,  to  him  we  all  hasten, 
and  (as  you  do  in  the  case  of  marrying,  so  we  think  it 
right  to  do  in  the  case  of  our  friends)  we  court  him, 
and  we  [who  would  be  friends]  do  all  things  together, 
so  that  we  may  not  offend  against  friendship,  or  seem 

^Opera^  p.  545.  ^  Toxaris ^  chap.  37. 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  THE   THUMB.  59 

worthy  to  be  rejected.  And  whenever  one  decides  to 
be  a  friend,  we  [who  would  join  in  the  covenant]  make 
the  greatest  of  all  oaths,  to  live  with  one  another,  and 
to  die,  if  need  be,  the  one  for  the  other.  And  this  is 
the  manner  of  it :  Thereupon,  cutting  our  fingers,  all 
simultaneously,  we  let  the  blood  drop  into  a  vessel, 
and  having  dipped  the  points  of  our  swords  into  it, 
both  [of  us]  holding  them  together,^  we  drink  it. 
There  is  nothing  which  can  loose  us  from  one  another 
after  that" 

Yet  a  little  earlier  than  Lucian,  Tacitus,  foremost 
among  Latin  historians,  gives  record  of  this  rite  of 
blood-brotherhood  as  practised  in  the  East.  He  is  tell- 
ing, in  his  Annals,  of  Rhadamistus,  leader  of  the  Iber- 
ians, who  pretends  to  seek  a  covenant  with  Mithradates, 
King  of  the  Armenians  (yet  farther  east  than  Scythia), 
which  should  make  firm  the  peace  between  the  two 
nations,  '' diis  testibus','  "the  gods  being  witnesses." 
Here  Tacitus  makes  an  explanation:^  "  It  is  the  custom 
of  [Oriental]  kings,  as  often  as  they  come  together  to 
make  covenant,  to  join  right  hands,  to  tie  the  thumbs 
together,  and  to  tighten  them  with  a  knot.  Then, 
when  the  blood  is  [thus]  pressed  to  the  finger  tips, 
they  draw  blood  by  a  light  stroke,  and  lick^  it  in  turn. 

^  See  references  to  arms  as  accessories  to  the  rite,  in  Africa,  and  in 
Madagascar,  and  in  Timor,  at  pages  16,  32,  35  f.,  45  f,  53,  supra. 
^  Annales,  XII.,  47.  ^See  page  11,  supra. 


6o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

This  they  regard  as  a  divine  ^  covenant,  made  sacred 
as  it  were,  by  mutual  blood  [or  blended  lives] ." 

There  are  several  references,  by  classical  writers,  to 
this  blood-friendship,  or  to  this  blood-covenanting,  in 
connection  with  Catiline's  conspiracy  against  the  Ro- 
man Republic.  Sallust,  the  historian  of  that  conspir- 
acy, says :  "  There  were  those  at  that  time  who  said 
that  Catiline,  at  this  conference  [with  his  accomplices] 
when  he  inducted  them  into  the  oath  of  partnership  in 
crime,  carried  round  in  goblets  human  blood,  mixed 
with  wine ;  and  that  after  all  had  tasted  of  it,  with  an 
imprecatory  oath,  as  is  men's  wont  in  solemn  rites  [in 
"  Sharb  el  'Ahd" ^  as  the  Arabs  would  say]  he  opened 
to  them  his  plans  ."^  Florus,  a  later  Latin  historian, 
describing  this  conspiracy,  says :  "  There  was  added 
the  pledge  of  the  league, — human  blood, — which 
they  drank  as  it  was  borne  round  to  them  in  gob- 
lets." *  And  yet  later,  TertuUian  suggests  that  it  was 
their  own  blood,  mingled  with  wine,  of  which  the 
fellow-conspirators  drank  together.  "  Concerning  the 
eating  of  blood  and  other  such  tragic  dishes,"  he 
says,  "you  read  (I  do  not  know  where),  that  blood 
drawn  from   the   arms,  and  tasted   by  one  another, 

*  Arcanum  ;  literally  "  mysterious," — not  in  the  sense  of  secret,  or 
occult,  but  with  reference  to  its  sacred  and  supernatural  origin  and 
sanction. 

*See  p.  9,  supra.       ^Catilinay  cap.  XXII.       ^  Historic,  IV.,  i,  4. 


THE  COVENANT  OF  CATILINE.  6 1 

was  the  method  of  making  covenant  among  certain 
nations.  I  know  not  but  that  under  Catiline  such 
blood  was  tasted."^ 

In  the  Pitti  Palace,  in  Florence,  there  is  a  famous 
painting  of  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline,  by  Salvator 
Rosa;  it  is,  indeed,  Salvator  Rosa's  masterpiece,  in  the 
line  of  historical  painting.  This  painting  represents 
the  covenanting  by  blood.  Two  conspirators  stand 
face  to  face,  their  right  hands  clasped  above  a  votive 
altar.  The  bared  right  arm  of  each  is  incised,  a  little 
below  the  elbow.  The  blood  is  streaming  from  the 
arm  of  one,  into  a  cup  which  he  holds,  with  his  left 
hand,  to  receive  it ;  while  the  dripping  arm  of  the 
other  conspirator  shows  that  his  blood  has  already 
flowed  into  the  commingling  cup.^  The  uplifted  hand 
of  the  daysman  between  the  conspirators  seems  to  in- 
dicate the  imprecatory  vows  which  the  two  are  assum- 
ing, in  the  presence  of  the  gods,  and  of  the  witnesses 
who  stand  about  the  altar.  This  is  a  clear  indication 
of  the  traditional  form  of  covenanting  between  Cati- 
line and  his  fellow  conspirators. 

As  far  back,  even,  as  the  fifth  century  before  Christ, 
we  find  an  explicit  description  of  this  Oriental  rite  of 
blood-covenanting,  in  the  writings  of  "  the  Father  of 
History."  "  Now  the  Scythians,"  says  Herodotus,^ 
"  make  covenants  in  the  following  manner,  with  whom- 

'^Apologei.y  cap.  IX.     ^  gee  stamp  on  outside  cover.     ^  Hist.y  IV.,  70. 

6 


62  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

soever  they  make  them.  Having  poured  out  wine  into 
a  great  earthen  drinking-bowl,  they  mingle  with  it  the 
blood  of  those  cutting  covenant,  striking  the  body  [of 
each  person  having  a  part  in  it]  with  a  small  knife,  or 
cutting  it  slightly  with  a  sword.  Thereafter,  they  dip 
into  the  bowl,  sword,  arrows,  axe,  and  javelin.^  But 
while  they  are  doing  this,  they  utter  many  invokings 
[of  curse  upon  a  breach  of  this  covenant]  ;^  and,  after- 
wards, not  only  those  who  make  the  covenant,  but 
those  of  their  followers  who  are  of  the  highest  rank, 
drink  off  [the  wine  mingled  with  blood]  ." 

Again  Herodotus  says  of  this  custom,  in  his  day^: 
"  Now  the  Arabians  reverence  in  a  very  high  degree 
pledges  between  man  and  man.  They  make  these 
pledges  in  the  following  way.  When  they  wish  to 
make  pledges  to  one  another,  a  third  man,  standing  in 
the  midst  of  the  two,  cuts  with  a  sharp  stone  the  inside 
of  the  hands  along  the  thumbs  of  the  two  making 
the  pledges.  After  that,  plucking  some  woolen  floss 
from  the  garments  of  each  of  the  two,  he  anoints  with 
the  blood  seven  stones  [as  the  "  heap  of  witness  "  "*] 
which  are  set  in  the  midst.     While  he  is  doing  this  he 

*  See  note,  at  page  59,  supra. 

^  See  the  references  to  imprecatory  invokings,  in  connection  with  the 
observance  of  the  rite  in  Syria,  in  Central  Africa,  in  Madagascar,  and  in 
Timor,  at  pages  9,  20,  31,  46  f.,  53,  supra, 

^  Hist.,  III.,  8.  *See  page  45  supra,  note. 


THE  DRINK  OF  THE  COVENANT.  6^^ 

invokes  Dionysus  and  Urania.  When  this  rite  is  com- 
pleted, he  that  has  made  the  pledges  [to  one  from 
without]  introduces  the  [former]  stranger  to  his 
friends  ^ — or  the  fellow  citizen  [to  his  fellows]  if  the 
rite  was  performed  with  a  fellow-citizen." 

Thus  it  is  clear,  that  the  rite  of  blood-brotherhood, 
or  of  blood-friendship,  which  is  to-day  a  revered  form 
of  sacred  covenanting  in  the  unchangeable  East,  was 
recognized  as  an  established  custom  among  Oriental 
peoples  twenty-three  centuries  ago.  Its  beginning 
must  certainly  have  been  prior  to  that  time ;  if  not 
indeed  long  prior. 

An  indication  of  the  extreme  antiquity  of  this  rite 
would  seem  to  be  shown  in  a  term  employed  in  its 
designation  by  the  Romans,  early  in  our  Christian  era  ; 
when  both  the  meaning  and  the  origin  of  the  term 
itself  were  already  lost  in  the  dim  past.  Festus,^  a 
writer,  of  fifteen  centuries  or  more  ago,  concerning 
Latin  antiquities,  is  reported^  as  saying,  of  this  drink 
of  the  covenant  of  blood :  ''A  certain  kind  of  drink, 
of  mingled  wine  and  blood,  was  called  assiratum  by 

^  See  references  to  the  welcoming  of  new  friends  by  the  natives  of  Af- 
rica and  of  Borneo,  at  the  celebration  of  this  rite,  at  pages  36  f.,  51,  supra. 

^  Sextus  Pompeius  Festus,  whose  chief  work,  in  the  third  or  fourth 
Christian  century,  was  an  epitome,  with  added  notes  and  criticisms,  of 
an  unpreserved  work  of  M.  Verrius  Flaccus,  on  the  Latin  language  and 
antiquities. 

'See  Rosenmuller's  Scholia  in  Vet.  Test.^  apud  Psa.  16:  4. 


64  >  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  ancients;  for  the  ancient  Latins  called  blood, 
assirr  Our  modern  lexicons  give  this  isolated  claim, 
made  by  Festus,  of  the  existence  of  any  such  word  as 
"  assir  "  signifying  "  blood,"  in  "  the  ancient  Latin  lan- 
guage;"^ and  some  of  them  try  to  show  the  possibili- 
ties of  its  origin  ;^but  no  convincing  proof  of  any  such 
word  and  meaning  in  the  Latin  can  be  found. 

Turning,  however,  to  the  languages  of  the  East, 
where  the  binding  vow  of  blood-friendship  was  pledged 
in  the  drink  of  wine  and  blood,  or  of  blood  alone, 
from  time  immemorial,  we  have  no  difficulty  in  find- 
ing the  meaning  of  "  assir."  Asar  ("ion)  is  a  common 
Hebrew  word,  signifying  "to  bind  together" — as  in 
a  mutual  covenant.  Issar  ("^D^),  again,  is  a  vow  of 
self-renunciation.  Thus  we  have  Asar  issar  'al  nephesh 
{^^},  Sj;  nDK  np«)  "  To  bind  a  self-devoting  vow  upon 
one's  life"^ — upon  one's  blood;  "for  the  blood  is 
the  life."  ^  In  the  Arabic,  also,  asara  (  r*^\  )  means 
"  to  bind,"  or  "  to  tie  " ;  while  asar  (  r**"^  )  is  "  a  cove- 
nant," or  "a  compact";  and  aswdr  (  ^y^\  )  is  "  a 
bracelet"  ;  which  in  itself  is  "a  band,"  and  may  be  "a 
fetter."^  So,  again,  in  the  Assyrian,  esiru  (-«iS)  is 
in  its  root  form  "  to  bind " ;   and  as  a  substantive  it 

*  See  Scheller's,  and  Harpers',  Latin  Dictionary,  s.  v.     "Assiratum." 

^See  Curtius's  Griechische  Etymologie,  s.  v.,  lap  (ear). 

*See  Gesenius,  and  Fuerst,  s.  w.  *Deut.  12 :  23. 

*  See  Lane,  and  Freytag.  s,  w. 


THE  BRACELET-BOND.  65 

is  "a  bracelet,"  or  "a  fetter."^  The  Syriac  gives  esar 
(  Y^'\  )'  "^  bond,"  or  "a  belt"^  All  these,  with  the 
root  idea, "  to  bind  " — as  a  covenant  binds.  In  the  light 
of  these  disclosures,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  "  issar"  or 
the  "  assar,"  when  it  was  a  covenant  of  blood,  came  to 
be  counted  by  the  Latins  the  blood  which  was  a  cove- 
nant. 

7.    THE   BOND   OF   THE   COVENANT. 

Just  here  it  may  be  well  to  emphasize  the  fact,  that, 
from  time  immemorial,  and  the  world  over,  the  armlet, 
the  bracelet,  and  the  ring,  have  been  counted  the  sym- 
bols of  a  boundless  bond  between  giver  and  receiver  ; 
the  tokens  of  a  mutual,  unending  covenant.  Possibly, 
— ^probably,  as  I  think, — this  is  in  consequence  of  the 
primitive  custom  of  binding,  as  an  amulet,  the  enclosed 
record — enclosed  in  the  "  house  of  the  amulet "  ^ —  of 
the  covenant  of  blood  on  the  arm  of  either  participant 
in  that  rite  ;  possibly,  again,  it  is  an  outgrowth  of  the 
common  root  idea  of  a  covenant  and  a  bracelet,  as  a 
binding  agency. 

Blood-covenanting  and  bracelet-binding  seem — as 
already  shown — to  be  intertwined  in  the  languages  of 
the  Oriental  progenitors  of  the  race.  There  are,  like- 
wise, indications  of  this  intertwining  in  the  customs  of 

1  See  Delitzsch's  Assyrische  Lesestiicke,  The  Syllabary,  p.  20 ;  and 
Sayce's  Assyrian  Grammar^  The  Syllabary. 

2  See  Castellus's  Lexicon  Syriacum,  s.  v.  '  See  page  7,  supra, 

6* 


66  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

peoples,  East  and  West.  For  example,  in  India,  where 
blood-shedding  is  peculiarly  objectionable,  the  gift  and 
acceptance  of  a  bracelet  is  an  ancient  covenant-tie, 
seemingly  akin  to  blood-brotherhood.  Of  this  cus- 
tom, an  Indian  authority  says :  "Amongst  the  raj  put 
races  of  India  the  women  adopt  a  brother  by  the 
gift  of  a  bracelet.  The  intrinsic  value  of  such  pledges 
is  never  looked  to,  nor  is  it  necessary  that  it  should 
be  costly,  though  it  varies  with  the  means  and  rank 
of  the  donor,  and  may  be  of  flock  silk  and  span- 
gles, or  of  gold  chains  and  gems.  The  acceptance  of 
the  pledge  is  by  the  *  katchlV,  or  corset,  of  simple  silk 
or  satin,  or  gold  brocade  and  pearls.  Colonel  Tod 
was  the  Rakhi-bund  Bhai  [the  Bracelet-bound  Bro- 
ther] of  the  three  queens  of  Oodipur,  Bundi,  and  Kotch ; 
as  also  of  Chund-Bai,  the  maiden  sister  of  the  Rana, 
and  of  many  ladies  of  the  chieftains  of  rank.  Though 
the  bracelet  may  be  sent  by  maidens,  it  is  only  on  oc- 
casions of  urgent  necessity  and  danger.  The  adopted 
brother  may  hazard  his  life  in  his  adopted  sister's  cause, 
and  yet  never  receive  a  mite  in  reward ;  for  he  cannot 
even  see  the  fair  object;  who,  as  brother  of  her  adop- 
tion, has  constituted  him  her  defender."^ 

"The    .    .    .    *  Bracelet-bound  Brother,' feels  himself 
called   upon  to   espouse   the   cause  of  the  lady  from 

*  Cited  from  "  Tod's  Travels,  Journal  Indian  Archipelago,  Vol.  V., 
No.  12,"  in  Balfour's  Cycl.  of  India,  s.  v.,  "Brother." 


THE  RING-OATH.  67 

whom  he  has  received  the  gift,  and  to  defend  her 
against  all  her  enemies,  whenever  she  shall  demand 
his  assistance."  Thus,  the  Great  Mogul,  Hoomayoon, 
father  of  the  yet  more  celebrated  Akbar,  was  in  his 
early  life  bound,  and  afterwards  loyally  recognized  his 
binding,  as  "  the  sworn  knight  of  one  of  the  princesses 
of  Rajasthan,  who,  according  to  the  custom  of  her 
country,  secured  the  sword  of  the  prince  in  her  service 
by  the  gift  of  a  bracelet."  When  he  had  a  throne  of 
his  own  to  care  for,  this  princess,  Kurnivati,  being  be- 
sieged at  Cheetore,  sent  to  Hoomayoon,  then  prosecu- 
ting a  vigorous  campaign  in  Bengal ;  and  he,  as  in  duty 
bound,  "  instantly  obeyed  the  summons " ;  and 
although  he  was  not  in  season  to  rescue  her,  he 
"evinced  his  fidelity  by  avenging  the  fall  of  the  city."^ 
It  is  noteworthy,  just  here,  that  the  Oriental  biogra- 
pher of  the  Mogul  Akbar  calls  attention  to  the  fact, 
that  while  the  Persians  describe  close  friendship  as 
chiefly  subsisting  between  men,  "  in  Hindostan  it  is 
celebrated  between  man  and  woman  ";^  as  indeed,  it 
is  among  the  Arab  tribes  East  of  the  Jordan.^ 

In  the  Norseland,  an  oath  of  fidelity  was  taken  on  a 
ring,  or  a  bracelet,  kept  in  the  temple  of  the  gods ; 
and  the  gift  and  acceptance  of  a  bracelet,  or  a  ring, 

1  See  Elliott  and  Roberts's  Views  in  India,  II.,  64. 

"  Ayeen  Akbery,  II.,  453. 

*  See  citation  from  Wetzstein,  at  page  9  f.,  supra. 


68  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

was  a  common  symbol  of  a  covenant  of  fidelity.  Thus, 
in  "  Havamal,"  the  high  song  of  Odin,  we  find : 

"  Odin,  I  believe, 
A  ring-oath  gave. 
Who,  in  his  faith  will  trust?" 

And  in  "  Viga  Glum's  Saga,"  it  is  related :  "  In  the 
midst  of  a  wedding  party.  Glum  calls  upon  Thorarin, 
his  accuser,  to  hear  his  oath,  and  taking  in  his  hand  a 
silver  ring  which  had  been  dipped  in  sacrificial  blood, 
he  cites  two  witnesses  to  testify  to  his  oath  on  the  ring, 
and  to  his  having  appealed  to  the  gods  in  his  denial 
of  the  charge  made  against  him."  In  the  "  Saga  of 
Fridthjof  the  Bold,"  when  Fridthjof  is  bidding  fare- 
well to  his  beloved  Ingeborg,  he  covenants  fidelity  to 
her  by  the  gift  of 

"An  arm-ringy  all  over  famous; 
Forged  by  the  halting   Volund,   'twas, — ^the   old  North-story's   Vul- 
can    .     .     . 
Heaven  was  grav'd  thereupon,  with  the  twelve  immortals'  strong  castles — 
Signs  of  the  changing  months,  but  the  skald  had  Sun-houses  named 
them." 

As  Fridthjof  gave  this  pledge  to  Ingeborg,  he  said : 

"  Forget  me  never ;  and. 
In  sweet  remembrance  of  our  youthful  love, 
This  arm-ring  take  ;  a  fair  Volunder-work, 
With  all  heaven's  wonders  carved  i'  th'  shining  gold. 
Ah !  the  best  wonder  is  a  faithful  heart     .     ,     . 
How  prettily  becomes  it  thy  white  arm — 
A  glow-worm  twining  round  a  lily  stem.'* 


BOND  OF  THE  WEDDING-RING.  69 

And  the  subsequent  story  of  that  covenanting  arm- 
ring,  fills  thrilling  pages  in  Norseland  lore.^ 

Yet  again,  in  the  German  cycle  of  the  "  Nibelungen 
Lied,"  Gotelind,  the  wife  of  Sir  Rudeger,  gives  brace- 
lets to  the  warrior-bard   Folker,  to  bind  him  as   her 
knightly  champion  in  the  court  of  King   Etzel,  to 
which  he  goes.     Her  jewel  casket  is  brought  to  her. 
"  From  this  she  took  twelve  bracelets,  and  drew  them  o'er  his  hand ; 
*  These  you  must  take,  and  with  you  bear  hence  to  Etzel's  land, 
And  for  the  sake  of  Gotelind  the  same  at  court  must  wear, 
That  I  may  learn,  when  hither  again  you  all  repair, 
What  service  you  have  done  me  in  yon  assembly  bright.' 
The  lady's  wish  thereafter  full  well  perform'd  the  knight." 

And  when  the  fight  waxed  sore  at  the  court  of  Etzel, 
the  daring  and  dying  Folker  called  on  Sir  Rudeger,  to 
bear  witness  to  his  bracelet-bound  fidelity : 

"  For  me,  most  noble  margrave  !  you  must  a  message  bear ; 
These  bracelets  red  were  given  me  late  by  your  lady  fair, 
To  wear  at  this  high  festal  before  the  royal  Hun, 
View  them  thyself,  and  tell  her  that  I've  her  bidding  done."  "^ 

It  would,  indeed,  seem,  that  from  this  root -idea  of 
the  binding  force  of  an  endless  covenant,  symbolized 
in  the  form,  and  in  the  primitive  name,  of  the  bracelet, 
the  armlet,  the  ring, — there  has  come  down  to  us  the 
use  of  the  wedding-ring,  or  the  wedding-bracelet,  and 

^See  Anderson's  Norse  MythoL,  p.  149;  his  Viking  Tales ^  pp.  1 84, 
237,  272  f.;  Wood's  Wedding  Day  in  all  Ages  and  Countries,  p.  1 39. 
^Lettsom's  Nibelungen  Lied,  pp.  299,  388. 


70  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

of  the  signet-ring  as  the  seal  of  the  most  sacred  cove- 
nants. The  signet-ring  appears  in  earliest  history. 
When  Pharaoh  would  exalt  Joseph  over  all  the  land 
of  Egypt,  "  Pharaoh  took  off  his  ring  from  his  hand, 
and  put  it  upon  Joseph's  hand."^  Similarly  with 
Ahasuerus  and  Haman :  "  The  king  took  his  ring  from 
his  hand,  and  gave  it  unto  Haman ; "  and  the  irrevoca- 
ble decrees  when  written  were  "  sealed  with  the  king's 
ring."  When  again  Haman  was  deposed  and  Morde- 
cai  was  exalted,  "  the  king  took  off  his  ring,  which  he 
had  taken  from  Haman,  and  gave  it  unto  Mordecai."^ 
The  re-instatement  of  the  prodigal  son,  in  the  parable, 
was  by  putting  "  a  ring  on  his  hand."  ^  And  these 
illustrations  out  of  ancient  Egypt,  Persia,  and  Syria, 
indicate  a  world-wide  custom,  so  far.  One's  signet- 
ring  stood  for  his  very  self,  and  represented,  thus,  his 
blood,  as  his  life. 

The  use  of  rings,  or  bracelets,  or  armlets,  in  the 
covenant  of  betrothal,  or  of  marriage,  is  from  of  old, 
and  it  is  of  wide-spread  acceptance.^  References  to  it 
are  cited  from  Pliny,  Tertullian,  Juvenal,  Isidore ;  and 
traces  of  it  are  found,  earlier  or  later,  among  the  peo- 
ples of  Asia,  Africa,  Europe,  and  the  Islands  of  the 
Sea.  In  Iceland,  the  covenanting-ring  was  large 
enough  for  the  palm  of  the  hand  to  be  passed  through  ; 

iGen.  41:  41,  42.        2  Esther  3:  10-12;  8:  2.        ^Luke  15  :  22. 
*  See  Wood's  Wedding  Day ;  oH&o  ^onts^s  Finger  Hing  Lore. 


MARRIED  TO  A  THUMB.  7 1 

SO,  in  betrothal  "  the  bridegroom  passed  four  fingers 
and  his  palm  through  one  of  these  rings,  and  in  this 
manner  he  received  the  hand  of  the  bride."  In  Ire- 
land, long  ago,  "  a  usual  gift  from  a  woman  to  her  be- 
trothed husband  was  a  pair  of  bracelets  made  of  her 
own  hair  " ;  as  if  a  portion  of  her  very  self — as  in  the 
case  of  one's  blood — entered  into  the  covenant  rite. 
Again  in  Ireland,  as  also  among  the  old  Romans,  the 
wedding-ring  was  in  the  form  of  two  hands  clasped 
(called  a  '' fede  ")  in  token  of  union  and  fidelity. 

Sometimes,  in  England,  the  wedding-ring  was  worn 
upon  the  thumb,  as  extant  portraits  illustrate ;  and  as 
suggested  in  Butler's  Hudibras : 

"  Others  were  for  abolishing 
That  tool  of  matrimony,  a  ring, 
"With  which  the  unsanctify'd  bridegroom 
Is  marry'd  only  to  a  thumb." 

In  Southern's  "  Maid's  Last  Prayer,"  the  heroine 
says :  "  Marry  him  I  must,  and  wear  my  wedding-ring 
upon  my  thumb  too,  that  I'm  resolved."  ^  These 
thumb-weddings  were  said  to  be  introduced  from  the 
East^;  and  Chardin  reports  a  form  of  marriage  in 
Ceylon,  by  the  binding  together  of  the  thumbs  of  the 
contracting  parties ;  ^  as,  according  to  the  classics,  the 
thumbs  were  bound  together  in  the  rite  of  blood-cov- 
enanting.'*    Indeed,  the  selection  of  the  ring-finger  for 

^  Cited  in  Jones's  Finger  Ring  Lore,  p.  289.      ^  See  Ibid.,  pp.  87-90. 
'  Persian-  und  Ost-  Indische  Reise,  1 1 . ,  1 96.      *  See  pp.  5  9  f. ,  62,  supra. 


72  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  wedding-covenant  has  commonly  been  attributed 
to  the  relation  of  that  finger  to  the  heart  as  the  blood- 
centre,  and  as  the  seat  of  life.  "Aulus  GeUius  tells  us, 
that  Appianus  asserts,  in  his  Egyptian  books,  that  a 
very  delicate  nerve  runs  from  the  fourth  finger  of  the 
left  hand  to  the  heart,  on  which  account  this  finger  is 
used  for  the  marriage-ring."  Macrobius  says  that  in 
Roman  espousals  the  woman  put  the  covenant  ring  "  on 
the  third  finger  of  her  left  hand  [not  counting  the  thumb], 
because  it  was  believed  that  a  nerve  ran  from  that  finger 
to  the  heart."  And  as  to  the  significance  of  this  point, 
it  has  been  said :  "  T\v^fact  [of  the  nerve  connection  with 
the  heart]  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question :  that  the 
ancients  believed  it,  is  all  we  require  to  know."  ^ 

Among  the  Copts  of  Egypt,  both  the  blood  and  the 
ring  have  their  part  in  the  covenant  of  marriage. 
Two  rings  are  employed,  one  for  the  bride  and  one  for 
the  bridegroom.  At  the  door  of  the  bridegroom's 
house,  as  the  bride  approaches  it,  a  lamb  or  a  sheep 
is  slaughtered ;  and  the  bride  must  have  a  care  to  step 
over  the  covenanting-blood  as  she  enters  the  door, 
to  join  the  bridegroom.  It  is  after  this  ceremony, 
that  the  two  contracting  parties  exchange  the  rings, 
which  are  as  the  tokens  of  the  covenant  of  blood.^ 

*See  Godwyn's  Romance  HistoHcr,  p.  69;  Brewer's  Z>zV/.  of  Phrase  and 
Fabkj  s.  vv.  "  Ring,"  "  Ring  Finger  " ;  Jones's  Finger  Ring  Lore,  p.  275. 
See  also  Appendix,  infra.  ^  Lane's  Mod.  Egypt.,  II.,  293. 


THE  RING  IN  THE  CUP.  73 

In  Borneo,  among  the  Tring  Dayaks,the  marriage  cere- 
mony includes  the  smearing  with  a  bloody  sword,  the 
clasped  hands  of  the  bride  and  groom,  in  conjunction 
with  an  invoking  of  the  protecting  spirits.^  In  this  case, 
the  wedding-ring  would  seem  to  be  a  bond  of  blood. 

Again,  in  Little  Russia,  the  bride  gives  to  the  bride-' 
groom  a  covenanting  draught  in  "a  cup  of  wine,  in 
which  a  ring  has  been  put  "  ;^  as  if  in  that  case  the  wine 
and  the  blood-bond  of  the  covenant  were  commingled 
in  a  true  assiratum?  That  this  latter  custom  is  an 
ancient  one,  would  seem  to  be  indicated  by  the  indirect 
reference  to  it  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's  ballad  of  "  The 
Noble  Moringer,"  a  mediaeval  lay;  where  the  long 
absent  knight  returns  from  the  Holy  Land,  just  in 
time  to  be  at  the  wedding-feast  of  his  enticed  wife. 
He  appears  unrecognized  at  the  feast,  as  a  poor 
palmer.     A  cup  of  wine  is  sent  to  him  by  the  bride. 

"  It  was  the  noble  Moringer  that  dropped  amid  the  wine 
A  bridal  ring  of  burning  gold  so  costly  and  so  fine  : 
Now  listen,  gentles,  to  my  song,  it  tells  you  but  the  sooth, 
'Twas  with  that  very  ring  of  gold  he  pledged  his  bridal  truth." 

Clearly  this  was  not  the  ring  he  gave  at  his  bridal, 
but  the  one  which  he  accepted,  inthecovenanting-cup, 
from  his  bride.  The  cup  was  carried  back  from  the 
palmer  to  the  bride,  for  her  drinking. 

^See  Bock's  Head  Hunters  of  Borneo,  p.  221  f. 
^Finger  Ring  Lore,  p.  174.  3  gee  page  63  f.,  supra, 

7 


74  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

"  The  ring  hath  caught  the  Lady's  eye ;  she  views  it  close  and  near ; 
Then  might  you  hear  her  shriek  aloud,  •  The  Moringer  is  here ! ' 
Then  might  you  see  her  start  from  seat,  while  tears  in  torrents  fell ; 
But  whether  'twas  from  joy  or  woe,  the  ladies  best  can  tell." 

To  the  present  day,  an  important  ceremony  at  the 
coronation   of  a  sovereign   of  Great   Britain,  is   the 
investiture  of  the  sovereign  per  aymulum,  or  "  by  the 
ring."     The  ring  is  placed  on  the  fourth  finger  of  the 
j  sovereign's  right  hand,  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
i  bury ;  and  it  is  called  "  The  Wedding  Ring  of  Eng- 
land,"  as  it   symbolizes   the   covenant  union   of  the 
/  sovereign  and  his  people.     A  similar  practice  prevails 
at  the  coronation  of  European  sovereigns  generally. 
It  also   runs   back  to  the  days  of  the  early  Roman 
emperors,  and  of  Alexander  the  Great^ 

That  a  ring,  or  a  circlet,  worn  around  a  thumb,  or  a 
finger,  or  an  arm,  in  token  of  an  endless  covenant 
between  its  giver  and  receiver,  has  been  looked  upon, 
in  all  ages,  as  the  symbol  of  an  inter-union  of  the  lives 
thereby  brought  together,  is  unmistakable;  whether 
the ,  covenanting  life-blood  be  drawn  for  such  inter- 
commingling,  directly  fi*om  the  member  so  encircled, 
or  not.  The  very  covenant  itself,  or  its  binding  force, 
has  been  sometimes  thought  to  depend  on  the  circlet 
representing  it;  as  if  the  life  which  was  pledged 
passed  into  the  token  of  its   pledging.     Thus    Lord 

^See  Finger  Ring  Lorcy  pp.  177-197. 


THE  KING  AND  HIS  GOD.  75 

Bacon  says :  "  It  is  supposed  [to  be]  a  help  to  the 
continuance  of  love,  to  wear  a  ring  or  bracelet  of  the 
person  beloved ; "  ^  and  he  suggests  that  "  a  trial 
should  be  made  by  two  persons,  of  the  effect  of  com- 
pact and  agreement ;  that  a  ring  should  be  put  on  for 
each  other's  sake,  to  try  whether,  if  one  should  break 
his  promise  the  other  would  have  any  feeling  of  it  in 
his  absence."  In  other  words,  that  the  test  should  be 
made,  to  see  whether  the  inter-union  of  lives  symbol- 
ized by  the  covenant-token  be  a  reality.  On  this  idea 
it  is,  that  many  persons  are  unwilling  to  remove  the 
wedding-ring  from  the  finger,  while  the  compact  holds? 
It  is  not  improbable,  indeed,  that  the  armlets,  or 
bracelets,  which  were  found  on  the  arms  of  Oriental 
kings,  and  of  Oriental  divinities  as  well,  were  intended 
to  indicate,  or  to  symbolize,  the  personal  inter-union 
claimed  to  exist  between  those  kings  and  divinities. 
Thus  an  armlet,  worn  by  Thotmes  III.,  is  preserved 
in  the  museum  at  Leyden.  It  bears  the  cartouche  of 
the  King,  having  on  it  his  sacred  name,  with  its  refer- 
ence to  his  inter-union  with  his  god.  It  was  much  the 
same  in  Nineveh.^  Lane  says,  that  upon  the  seal  ring 
commonly  worn  by  the  modern  Egyptian  "  is  engraved 
the  wearer's  name,"  and  that  this  name  "  is  usually  ac- 

1  Cited  in  Jones's  Credulities  Past  and  Present^  p.  204  f.    ^  See  Appendix. 
'  See  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  II.,  340-343  ;   Layard's  Nineveh  and 
its  Remains,  II.,  250,  358 ;  also  2  Sam.  i  :  lo. 


^6  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

companied  by  the  words  'His  servant'  (signifying  'the 
servant,  or  worshiper  of  God'),  and  often  by  other 
words  expressive  of  the  person's  trust  in  God."  ^ 

As  the  token  of  the  blood-covenant  is  sometimes 
fastened  about  the  arm,  and  sometimes  about  the  neck; 
so  the  encircling  necklace,  as  well  as  the  encircling 
armlet,  is  sometimes  counted  the  symbol  of  a  covenant 
of  very  Hfe.  This  is  peculiarly  the  case  in  India; 
where  the  bracelet-brotherhood  has  been  shown  to  be 
an  apparent  equivalent  of  the  blood-brotherhood. 
Among  the  folk-lore  stories  of  India,  it  is  a  common 
thing  to  hear  of  a  necklace  which  holds  the  soul  of  the 
wearer.  That  necklace  removed,  the  wearer  dies. 
That  necklace  restored,  the  wearer  lives  again.  "  So- 
dewa  Bai  was  born  with  a  golden  necklace  about  her 
neck,  concerning  which  also  her  parents  consulted  as- 
trologers, who  said,  *  This  is  no  common  child ;  the 
necklace  of  gold  about  her  neck  contains  your  daugh- 
ter's soul ;  let  it  therefore  be  guarded  with  the  utmost 
care;  for  if  it  were  taken  off,  and  worn  by  another 
person,  she  would  die.'  "  On  that  necklace  of  life,  the 
story  hangs.  The  necklace  was  stolen  by  a  servant, 
and  Sodewa  Bai  died.  Being  placed  in  a  canopied 
tomb,  she  revived,  night  by  night,  when  the  servant 
laid  off  the  stolen  necklace  which  contained  the  soul 
of  Sodewa  Bai.     The  loss  was  at  last  discovered  by 

*  Modern  Egyptians^  I.,  39. 


THE  RITE  IN  ANCIENT  EG  YPT.  7  7 

her  husband ;  the  necklace  was  restored  to  her,  and 
she  Hved  again.^     And  this  is  but  one  story  of  many. 

In  the  Brahman  marriage  ceremony  the  bridegroom 
receives  his  bride  by  binding  a  covenanting  necklace 
about  her  neck.  "  A  small  ornament  of  gold,  called 
tahly,  which  is  the  sign  of  their  being  actually  in  the 
state  of  marriage,  ...  is  fastened  by  a  short 
string  dyed  yellow  with  saffronr  ^  And  a  Sanskrit 
word  for  "  saffron  "  is  also  a  word  for  ''  blood."  ^ 

The  importance  of  this  symbolism  of  the  token  of 
the  blood-covenant,  in  its  bearing  on  the  root-idea  of 
an  inter-union  of  natures  by  an  inter-commingling  of 
blood,  will  be  more  clearly  shown,  by  and  by. 

8.   THE   RITE   AND    ITS    TOKEN    IN   EGYPT. 

Going  back,  now,  to  the  world's  most  ancient 
records,  in  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  we  find  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  the  covenant  of  blood,  in  those 
early  days.  Even  then,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  custom 
to  covenant  by  tasting  the  blood  from  another's  arm ; 
and  this  inter-transference  of  blood  was  supposed  to 
carry  an  inter-commingling,  or  an  inter-merging,  of 
natures.  So  far  was  this  symbolic  thought  carried, 
that  the  ancient  Egyptians  spoke  of  the  departed 
spirit,  as  having  entered  into  the  nature,  and,  indeed, 

^Frere's  Old  Deccan  Days,  pp.  225-245. 

'Dubois  Des.  of  Man.  and  Cust.  of  India,  Part  II.,  chap.  7. 

^  See  p.  194,  supra. 


78  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

into  the  very  being,  of  the  gods,  by  the  rite  of  tasting 
blood  from  the  divine  arm. 

"  The  Book  of  the  Dead,"  as  it  is  commonly  called, 
or  "  The  Book  of  the  Going  Forth  into  Day," — ("  The 
path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light,  that  shineth 
more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day,"  ^) — is  a  group, 
or  series,  of  ancient  Egyptian  writings,  representing 
the  state  and  the  needs  and  the  progress  of  the  soul 
after  death.^  A  copy  of  this  Funereal  Ritual,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  "  more  or  less  complete,  according 
to  the  fortune  of  the  deceased,  was  deposited  in  the 
case  of  every  mummy."  ^  "As  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
is  the  most  ancient,  so  it  is  undoubtedly  the  most 
important  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians  ;  "  ^  it 
is,  in  fact,  "  according  to  Egyptian  notions,  essentially 
an  inspired  work ;  "  ^  hence  its  contents  have  an  excep- 
tional dogmatic  value.  In  this  Book  of  the  Dead, 
there  are  several  obvious  references  to  the  rite  of  blood- 
covenanting.  Some  of  these  are  in  a  chapter  of  the 
Ritual  which  was  found  transcribed  in  a  coffin  of  the 

iProv.  4:  i8. 
'See  Lepsius's   Todtenbuch ;  Bunsen's  Egypfs  Place  in  Universal 
History^  V.,  125-133;  Renouf's  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypty  pp. 
179-208. 
•  See  Lenormant  and  Chevallier's  Ancient  History  of  the  East,  I.,  308. 
*  Renouf's  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  208. 
*  Bunsen's  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  133. 


THE  BLOOD  OF  THE  GODS.  79 

Eleventh  Dynasty ;  thus  carrying  it  back  to  a  period 
prior  to  the  days  of  Abraham,^ 

"  Give  me  your  arm ;  I  am  made  as  ye,"  says  the 
departed  soul,  speaking  to  the  gods.^  Then,  in  explan- 
ation of  this  statement,  the  pre-historic  gloss  of  the 
Ritual  goes  on  to  say :  "  The  blood  is  that  which 
proceeds  from  the  member  of  the  Sun,  after  he  goes 
along  cutting  himself; "  ^  the  covenant  blood  which 
unites  the  soul  and  the  god  is  drawn  from  the  flesh  of 

1  See  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  127.  2  /^^-^^^  y.,  1 74  f. 

'This  is  the  rendering  of  Birch.  Ebers  has  looked  for  an  explana- 
tion of  this  gloss,  in  the  rite  of  circumcision  {^Egypten  u.  d.  Bilcher 
Mose'Sy  p.  284  f.) ;  but  the  primary  reference  to  the  "  arm  "  of  the  god, 
and  to  the  union  secured  through  the  interflowing  blood,  point  to  the 
blood-covenant  as  the  employed  figure  of  speech ;  although  circumcision, 
as  will  be  seen  presently,  was  likewise  a  symbol  of  the  blood-covenant 
— for  one's  self  and  for  one's  seed.  Brugsch  also  sees  a  similar 
meaning,  to  that  suggested  by  Ebers,  in  this  reference  to  the  blood. 
His  rendering  of  the  original  text  is  :  "  Reach  me  your  hands,  I  have 
become  that  which  ye  are  "  [Religion  u.  Mythol.  d.  alt.  jEgypt.,  I.,  219). 
Le  Page  Renouf,  looking  for  the  symbolisms  of  material  nature  in  all 
these  statements,  would  find  here  "the  crimson  of  a  sunset"  in  the 
"  blood  which  flows  from  the  Sun-god  Ra,  as  he  hastens  to  his  suicide  " 
( Trans,  of  Soc.  of  Bib.  Arch.,  Vol.  VIII.,  Part  2,  p.  21 1).  This,  however, 
does  not  conflict  with  the^^zW/^a/symbolismof  oneness  of  nature  through 
oneness  of  blood.  And  no  one  of  these  last  three  suggested  mean- 
ings accounts  for  the  oneness  with  the  gods  through  blood,  which  the 
deceased  claims,  unless  the  symbolism  of  blood-covenanting  be  recog- 
nized in  the  terminology.  That  symbolism  being  recognized,  the 
precise  source  of  the  flowing  blood  becomes  a  minor  matter. 


8o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Ra,  when  he  has  cut  himself  in  the  rite  of  that  coven- 
ant By  this  covenant-cutting,  the  deceased  becomes 
one  with  the  covenanting  gods.  Again,  the  departed 
soul,  speaking  as  Osiris, — or  as  the  Osirian,  which 
every  mummy  represents,^ — says :  "  I  am  the  soul  in 
his  two  halves."  Once  more  there  follows  the  explana- 
tion :  "  The  soul  in  his  two  halves  is  the  soul  of  the 
Sun  [of  Ra],  and  the  soul  of  Osiris  [of  the  deceased]." 
Here  is  substantially  the  proverb  of  friendship  cited 
by  Aristotle,  "  One  soul  in  two  bodies,"  at  least  two 
thousand  years  before  the  days  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
pher. How  much  earlier  it  was  recognized,  does  not 
yet  appear. 

Again,  when  the  deceased  comes  to  the  gateway 
of  light,  he  speaks  of  himself  as  linked  with  the 
great  god  Seb ;  as  one  "  who  loves  his  arm,"  ^  and 
who  is,  therefore,  sure  of  admittance  to  him,  within 
the  gates.  By  the  covenant  of  the  blood-giving  arm, 
"  the  Osiris  opens  the  turning  door ;  he  has  opened 
the  turning  door."  Through  oneness  of  blood,  he  has 
come  into  oneness  of  life,  with  the  gods ;  there  is  no 
longer  the  barrier  of  a  door  between  them.  The 
separating  veil  is  rent 

An  added   indication  that  the  covenant  of  blood- 

1  See  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  473 ;  Renouf 's  Relig.  of  Anc, 
Egypt ,  pp.  1 91-193  ;  Lenonnant's  Chaldean  Magic y  p.  ZZ. 

2  See  Todtenbuch,  chap.  LXVIIL;  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  211. 


THE  COVENANT-AMULET.  8 1 

friendship  furnished  the  ancient  Egyptians  with  their 
highest  conception  of  a  union  with  the  divine  nature 
through  an  interflowing  of  the  divine  blood — as  the 
divine  Hfe — is  found  in  the  amulet  of  this  covenant ; 
corresponding  with  the  token  of  the  covenant  of  blood- 
friendship,  which,  as  fastened  to  the  arm,  or  about  the 
neck,  is  deemed  so  sacred  and  so  precious,  in  the 
primitive  East  to-day.  The  hieroglyphic  word,  tat^ 
tet,  or  toty  (  "^  }  )  translated  "  arm,"  is  also  translated 
"  bracelet,"  or  "  armlet,"  C^  !  o)  ^  as  if  in  suggestion 
of  the  truth,  already  referred  to,^  that  the  blood-fur- 
nishing arm  was  represented  by  the  token  of  the  arm- 
encircling,  or  of  the  neck-encircling,  bond,  in  the 
covenant  of  blood.  Moreover,  a  "  red  talisman,"  or 
red  amulet,  stained  with  "the  blood  of  Isis,"  and 
containing  a  record  of  the  covenant,  was  placed  at  the 
neck  of  the  mummy  as  an  assurance  of  safety  to  his 
soul,^     "  When   this   book    [this   amulet-record]    has 

*  See  Pierret's  Vocabulaire  HUroglyphiqucy  p.  721  f. ;  also,  Birch's 
"  Diet,  of  Hierog."  in  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  519. 

'  See  page  65  f.,  supra. 

8  See  Todtenbuch,  chap.  CLVI.;  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  315  ;  Trans,  of 
Soc.  of  Bib.  Arch.,  VIII.,  2,  211. 

This  amulet  is  also  called  tet ;  a  word  of  the  same  phonetic  force  as 
tet,  the  "  arm,"  or  the  "  bracelet,"  but  of  different  letters.  This  word 
(\  T  ^  seems  to  have  the  root-idea  of  "  word ;  "  as  if  it  were  ap- 
plied to  the  text  of  the  blood-covenant. 

The  amulet  as  constructed  for  the  mummy,  was  stained  with  the 


82  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

been  made,"  says  the  Ritual,  "  it  causes  Isis  to  protect 
him  [the  Osirian],  and  Horus  he  rejoices  to  see  him." 
"  If  this  book  [this  covenant-token]  is  known,"  says 
Horus,  "  he  [the  deceased]  is  in  the  service  of  Osiris. 
.     .     .     His  name  is  Hke  that  of  the  gods." 

There  are  various  other  references  to  this  rite,  or 
other  indications  of  its  existence,  than  those  already 
cited,  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  "  I  have  welcomed 
Thoth  (or  the  king)  with  blood ;  taking  the  gore  from 
the  blessed  of  Seb,"  ^  is  one  of  these  gleams.     Again, 


water  or  liquid  of  the  tree  called  ankh  am  ("f-'f'  tt»)-  The  amulet  itself, 
according  to  Brugsch,  was  also  called  ankh  merer  (  "j"  ^^5"  ).  But 
ankh  (  -T-  )  means  either  to  live  (the  ordinary  meaning),  or  to  szuear, 
to  make  oath  (more  rarely),  and  merer  (  ^^  )  is  a  reduplicated  form 
of  mer  (  "^^^  )  to  love,  love,  friendship.  The  meaning  of  ankh  merer^ 
as  applied  to  the  blood-amulet  may  be,  oath,  or  covenant,  or  pledge 
of  love  or  friendship.  The  word  merer,  in  the  compound  ankh  merer, 
is  followed  with  the  determinative  of  the  flying  scarabasus  (^^, 
which  was  commonly  placed  {Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  346)  upon  the  breast, 
in  lieu  of  the  heart  of  the  dead  {Ibid.,  III.,  486).  Seepage  \oo,infra. 
And  here  the  inquiry  is  suggested.  Was  the  ankh  am  the  same  as  the 
modern  henneh  ?  Note  the  connection  of  henneh  with  the  marriage 
festivities  in  the  East  to-day. 

"  Paint  one  hand  with  henna,  mother ; 
Paint  one  hand  and  leave  the  other. 
Bracelets  on  the  right  with  henna; 
On  the  left  give  drink  to  henna." 

(Jessup's  Syrian  Home  Life,  p.  34.) 
^See  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  232. 


UNITED    WITH  THOTH.  ^'^ 

there  are  incidental  mentions  of  the  tasting  of  blood, 
by  gods  and  by  men;^  and  of  the  proffering,  or  the 
uplifting,  of  the  blood-filled  arm,  in  covenant  with  the 
gods.^ 

On  a  recently  deciphered  stele  of  the  days  of  Ram- 
eses  IV.,  of  the  Twentieth  Dynasty,  about  twelve  cen- 
turies before  Christ,  there  is  an  apparent  reference  to 
this  blood-covenanting,  and  to  its  amulet  record.  The 
inscription  is  a  specimen  of  a  funereal  ritual,  not  unlike 
some  portions  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  The  deceased 
is  represented  as  saying,  according  to  the  translation 
of  Piehl^:  "I  am  become  familiar  with  Thoth,  by  his 
writings,  on  the  day  when  he  spat  upon  his  arm."  The 
Egyptian  word,  khenmes,  here  translated  "familiar," 
means  "united  with,"  or  "joined  with."  The  word 
here  rendered  "writings,"  is  hetepoo ;  which,  in  the 
singular,  hetep,  in  the  Book  of  Dead,  stands  for  the 
record  of  the  covenant  on  the  blood-stained  amulet.^ 
The  word  peqas  (-*+-/'<)),  rendered  "spat,"  by 
Piehl,  is  an  obscure  term,  variously  rendered  "moist- 
ened," "washed,"  ''wiped,"  " healed." ^  It  is  clear 
therefore  that  this  passage  may  fairly  be  read :  "  I  am 
become  united  with  Thoth,  by  the  covenant-record,  on 
the  day  when  he  moistened,  or  healed  his  arm  " ;  and 

*  See  Egypfs  Place,  V.,  174,  254,  282.  "^  Ibid.,  V.,  323. 
3  See  Zeitschrift  fiir  ^gyptische  Sprache,  erstes  Heft,  1885,  p.  16. 

*  See  page  81  f.,  supra.  *  See  Pierret,  Brugsch,  Birch,  s.  v. 


84  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

if  the  arm  were  healed,  it  had  been  cut,  and  so  moist- 
ened. Indeed  it  is  quite  probable  that  this  word  peqas 
has  a  root  connection  with  peq,  peqa,  peqaUy  "  a  gap," 
"an  opening,"  "to  divide";  and  even  with  penqu, 
(a^'^/*^)  "to  bleed."  Apparently,  the  unfamil- 
iarity  of  Egyptologists  with  this  rite  of  blood-cove- 
nanting, by  the  cutting  of  the  arm,  has  hindered 
the  recognition  of  the  full  force  of  many  of  the  terms 
involved. 

Ebers,  in  his  "Uarda,"  has  incidentally  given  an 
illustration  of  the  custom  of  blood-covenanting  in 
ancient  Egypt.  It  is  when  the  surgeon  Nebsecht  has 
saved  the  life  of  Uarda,  and  her  soldier-father,  Kaschta, 
would  show  his  gratitude,  and  would  pledge  his  life- 
long fidelity  in  return. 

" '  If  at  any  time  thou  dost  want  help,  call  me,  and 
I  will  protect  thee  against  twenty  enemies.  Thou  hast 
saved  my  child — good !  Life  for  life.  I  sign  myself 
thy  blood-ally — there  ! ' 

"  With  these  words  he  drew  his  poniard,  out  of  his 
girdle.  He  scratched  his  arm,  and  let  a  few  drops  of 
his  blood  run  down  on  a  stone  at  the  feet  of  Nebsecht. 

"  *  Look ! '  he  said.  '  There  is  my  blood !  Kaschta 
has  signed  himself  thine;  and  thou  canst  dispose  of 
my  life  as  of  thine  own.  What  I  have  said,  I  have 
said.'"i 

^  Uarda,  I.,  192. 


LOVE-SHOWING  BY  BLOOD-LETTING.        8$ 
9.   OTHER   GLEAMS   OF   THE   RITE. 

In  this  last  cited  illustration,  from  Uarda,  there 
would,  at  first  glance,  seem  to  be  the  covenant  prof- 
fered, rather  than  the  covenant  entered  into ;  the  cove- 
nant all  on  one  side,  instead  of  the  mutual  covenant. 
But  this  is,  if  it  were  possible,  only  a  more  unselfish 
and  a  more  trustful  mode  than  the  other,  of  covenant- 
ing by  blood;  of  pledging  the  life,  by  pledging  the 
blood,  to  one  who  is  already  trusted  absolutely.  And 
this  mode  of  proffering  the  covenant  of  blood,  or  of 
pledging  one's  self  in  devotedness  by  the  ■  giving  of 
one's  blood,  is  still  a  custom  in  the  East ;  as  it  has  been 
in  both  the  East  and  the  West,  from  time  immemorial. 

For  example,  in  a  series  of  illustrations  of  Oriental 
manners,  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  French 
ambassador  to  Turkey,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  there  appears  a  Turkish  lover  gashing 
his  arm  in  the  presence  of  his  lady-love,  as  a  proof  of 
his  loving  attachment  to  her ;  and  the  accompanying 
statement  is  made,  that  the  relative  flow  of  blood  thus 
devoted  indicates  the  measure  of  affection — or  of  af- 
fectionate devotedness.^  ^ 

A  custom  akin  to  this  was  found  in  Otaheite,  when 
the  South  Sea  Islands  were  first  visited  by  English 

1  Ferriol's  Recueil  de  cent  Estampes  representant  differentes  Nations 
du  Levant ^  Carte  43,  and  Explication,  p.  16. 

8 


86  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

missionaries.  The  measure  of  love,  in  time  of  joy  or 
in  time  of  grief,  was  indicated  by  the  measure  of  blood 
drawn  from  the  person  of  the  loving  one.  Particularly 
was  this  the  case  with  the  women ;  perhaps  because 
they,  in  Otaheite  as  elsewhere,  are  more  loving  in  their 
nature,  and  readier  to  give  of  their  very  life  in  love. 

"  When  a  woman  takes  a  husband,"  says  a  historian 
of  the  first  missionary  work  in  Otaheite,  "  she  imme- 
diately provides  herself  with  a  shark's  tooth,  which  is 
fixed,  with  the  bread-fruit  gum,  on  an  instrument  that 
leaves  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  of  the  tooth  bare, 
for  the  purpose  of  wounding  the  head,  like  a  lancet. 
Some  of  these  have  two  or  three  teeth,  and  struck  for- 
cibly they  bring  blood  in  copious  streams  ;  according 
to  the  love  they  bear  the  party,  and  the  violence  of  their 
grief,  the  strokes  are  repeated  on  the  head;  and  this 
has  been  known  to  bring  on  fever,  and  terminate  in 
madness.  If  any  accident  happen  to  the  husband,  [to] 
his  relations,  or  friends,  or  their  child,  the  shark's  tooth 
goes  to  work ;  and  even  if  the  child  only  fall  down 
and  hurt  itself,  the  blood  and  tears  mingle  together. 
.  .  .  They  have  a  very  similar  way  of  expressing 
their  joy  as  well  as  sorrow;  for  whether  a  relation  dies, 
or  a  dear  friend  returns  from  a  journey,  the  shark's 
tooth  instrument  ...  is  again  employed,  and  the 
blood  streams  down.  .  .  .  When  a  person  of 
eminence  dies     .     .     .     the  relatives  and  friends   .   .   . 


A  BLOODY  GREETING.  Sj 

repeat  before  it  [the  corpse]  some  of  the  tender 
scenes  which  happened  during  their  Hfe  time,  and  wip- 
ing the  blood  which  the  shark's  teeth  has  drawn,  de- 
posit the  cloth  on  the  tupapow  as  the  proof  of  their 
affection."  ^ 

In  illustration  of  this  custom,  the  same  writer  says, 
in  the  course  of  his  narrative :  "  When  we  had  got 
within  a  short  mile  of  the  Isthmus,  in  passing  a  few 
houses,  an  aged  woman,  mother  to  the  young  man  who 
carried  my  linen,  met  us,  and  to  express  her  joy  at 
seeing  her  son,  struck  herself  several  times  on  the  head 
with  a  shark's  tooth,  till  the  blood  flowed  plentifully 
down  her  breast  and  shoulders,  whilst  the  son  beheld 
it  with  entire  insensibility  [He  saw  in  it  only  the  com- 
mon proof  of  his  mother's  devoted  love].  .  .  .  The 
son  seeing  that  I  was  not  pleased  with  what  was  done, 
observed  coolly,  that  it  was  the  custom  of  Otaheite."^ 

This  custom  is  again  referred  to  by  Mr.  Ellis,  as  ob- 
served by  him  in  the  Georgian  and  the  Society  Islands, 
a  generation  later  than  the  authority  above  cited.  He 
speaks  of  the  shark's  tooth  blood-letter,  as  employed 
by  men,  as  well  as  by  women ;  although  more  com- 
monly by  the  latter.  He  adds  another  illustration  of 
the  truth,  that  it  is  the  blood  itself^  and  not  any  suffer- 
ing caused  by  its  flowing,  that  is  counted  the  proof  of 

"^  First  Miss.  Voyage  to  the  So.  Sea  Islands^  pp.  352-363. 
2  Ibid.^  p.  196. 


88  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

affection ;    by  its  representing  the  outpoured  life,  in 
pledge  of  covenant  fidelity. 

Describing  the  scenes  of  blood-giving  grief,  over 
the  dead  bodies  of  the  mourned  loved  ones,  he  says : 
"The  females  on  these  occasions  sometimes  put  on  a 
kind  of  short  apron,  of  a  particular  sort  of  cloth; 
which  they  held  up  with  one  hand,  while  they  cut 
themselves  with  the  other.  In  this  apron  they  caught 
the  blood  that  flowed  from  these  grief-inflicted  wounds, 
until  it  [the  apron]  was  almost  saturated.  It  was  then 
dried  in  the  sun,  and  given  to  the  nearest  surviving 
relatives,  as  a  proof  of  the  affection  of  the  donor,  and 
was  preserved  by  the  bereaved  family  as  a  token  of 
the  estimation  in  which  the  departed  had  been  held."  ^ 
There  is  even  more  of  vividness  in  this  memorial,  than 
in  that  suggested  by  the  Psalmist,  when  he  says  : 

"  Put  thou  my  tears  into  thy  bottle."  ^ 

There  would  seem  to  be  a  suggestion  of  this  same 
idea  in  one  of  Grimm's  folk-lore  fairy  tales  of  the 
North.  A  queen's  daughter  is  going  away  from  her 
home,  attended  by  a  single  servant.  Her  loving 
mother  would  fain  watch  and  guard  her  in  her  absence. 
Accordingly,  "as  soon  as  the  hour  of  departure  had 
arrived,  the  mother  took  her  daughter  into  a  chamber, 
and  there,  with  a  knife,  she  cut  her  [own]  finger  with 

*  Ellis's  Polynesian  Researches^  I.,  529.  2  pg^,  56 :  8. 


BLEEDING  FOR  BAAL.  89 

it,  SO  that  it  bled.  Then,  she  held  her  napkin  beneath, 
and  let  three  drops  of  blood  fall  into  it;  which  she 
gave  to  her  daughter,  saying :  *  Dear  child,  preserve 
this  well,  and  it  will  help  you  out  of  trouble.'  "  ^  That 
blood  represented  the  mother's  very  life.  It  was  ac- 
customed to  speak  out  in  words  of  counsel  and  warn- 
ing to  the  daughter.  But  by  and  by  the  napkin  which 
held  it  was  lost,  and  then  the  power  of  the  young 
princess  over  her  mother's  servant  was  gone,  and  the 
poor  princess  was  alone  in  the  wide  world,  at  the  mercy 
of  strangers. 

Acting  on  the  symbolism  of  this  covenanting  with 
another  by  the  loving  proffer  of  one's  blood,  men  have 
reached  out  toward  God,  or  toward  the  gods,  in 
desire  for  a  covenant  of  union,  and  in  expression  of 
fidelity  of  devotedness,  by  the  giving  of  their  blood 
God-ward.  This,  also,  has  been  in  the  East  and  in 
the  West,  in  ancient  days  and  until  to-day. 

There  was  a  gleam  of  this,  in  the  Canaanitish 
worship  of  Baal,  in  the  contest  between  his  priests  and 
the  prophet  Elijah,  before  King  Ahab,  at  Mount  Car- 
mel.  First,  those  priests  shed  the  blood  of  the  substi- 
tute bullock,  at  the  altar  of  their  god,  and  "  called  on 
the  name  of  Baal  from  morning  even  until  noon, 
saying,  O  Baal  hear  us !  But  there  was  no  voice, 
nor  any  that  answered."     Then  they  grew  more  earnest 

i«The  Goose  Girl,"  in  Grimm's  Household  Tales. 
8* 


90  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

in  their  supplications,  and  more  demonstrative  in  their 
proofs  of  devotedness.  "  They  leaped  [or,  limped] 
about  the  altar  which  was  made.  .  .  .  And  they 
cried  aloud,  and  cut  themselves  after  their  manner  with 
knives  and  lances,  till  the  blood  gushed  out  upon 
them."^  Similar  methods  of  showing  love  for  God  are 
in  vogue  among  the  natives  of  Armenia,  to-day. 
Describing  a  scene  of  worship  by  religious  devotees  in 
that  region,  Dr.  Van  Lennep  says :  "  One  of  them  cuts 
his  forehead  with  a  sword,  so  that '  the  blood  gushes 
out'  He  wears  a  sheet  in  front,  to  protect  his  clothes, 
and  his  face  is  covered  with  clots  of  blood."  ^  Clearly, 
in  this  case,  as  in  many  others  elsewhere,  it  is  not  as  a 
means  of  self-torture,  but  as  a  proof  of  self-devoted- 
ness,  that  the  blood  is  poured  out — the  life  is  proffered 
— ^by  the  devotee,  toward  God. 

Among  the  primitive  peoples  of  North  and  of  South 
America,  it  was  the  custom  of  priests  and  people,  to 
draw  blood  from  their  own  bodies,  from  their  tongues, 
their  ears,  their  noses,  their  limbs  and  members,  when 
they  went  into  their  temples  to  worship,  and  to  anoint 
with  that  blood  the  images  of  their  gods.^    The  thorns 

^  I  Kings  1 8 :  26-28.      '  Van  Lennep's  Bible  Lands,  pp.  767-769. 

^  See  Herrera's  Gen.  Hist,  of  Cont.  and  Isl.  of  America,  III.,  209, 
211, 216,  3CX)  f. ;  Clavigero's  Hist,  of  Mex.,  Bk.  VI.,  chaps.  22, 38 ;  Mon- 
tolinia's  Hist.  Ind.  de  Nueva  Espana,  p.  22 ;  Landa's  Relat.  Yucatan, 
XXXV.  J  Ximenez's  Hist.  Ind.  Gautem.,  pp.  171-181;  Palacio's  San 


FRESH  BLOOD  DAILY.  91 

of  the  maguey — a  species  of  aloe — were,  in  many  re- 
gions, kept  ready  at  places  of  sacrifice,  for  convenient 
use  in  this  covenant  blood-letting.^  A  careful  student 
of  these  early  American  customs  has  said  of  the  obvi- 
ous purpose  of  this  yielding  of  one's  blood  in  worship, 
that  it  "  might  be  regarded  as  an  act  of  individual 
devotion,  a  gift  made  to  the  gods  by  the  worshiper 
himself,  out  of  his  own  very  substance  [of  his  very 
life,  as  in  the  blood-covenant].  .  .  .  The  priests  in 
particular  owed  it  to  their  special  character  [in  their 
covenant  relation  to  the  divinities],  to  draw  their  blood 
for  the  benefit  of  the  gods  [in  renewed  pledge  to  the 
gods]  ;  and  nothing  could  be  stranger  than  the  refined 
methods  they  adopted  to  accomplish  this  end.  For 
instance,  they  would  pass  strings  or  splinters  through 
their  lips  or  ears,  and  so  draw  a  little  blood.  But  then 
a  fresh  string,  or  a  fresh  splinter,  must  be  added  every 
day,  and  so  it  might  go  on  indefinitely ;  for  the  more 
there  were,  the  more  meritorious  was  the  act ;  "  ^  pre- 

Salv.  and  Hond.  (in  Squier's  Coll.y  I.)  65  ff.,  106,  116;  Simon's  Ter. 
Not.  Conq.  Tier.  Firm,  en  Nue  Gran,  (in  Kingsborough's  Antiq.  of 
Mex.,  VIII.)  208,  248;  all  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc.  II.,  20-26,  28, 33. 
See,  also,  Bancroft's  Native  Faces  of  Pacif.  Coasty  I.,  665,  723 ;  II., 
259»  306,  708,  710. 

*  Serving  the  purpose  of  the  Otaheitan  shark's-teeth.     See  page  86  f., 

sup'a. 

^  R6ville's  Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru^  p.  84  f. 


92  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

cisely  as  is  the  standard  of  love-showing  by  blood-let- 
ting among  Turkish  lovers  and  Otaheitan  wives  and 
mothers,  in  modern  times. 

A  similar  giving  of  blood,  in  proof  of  devotedness, 
and  in  outreaching  for  inter-communion  with  the  gods 
through  blood,  is  reported  in  India,  in  recent  times. 
Bishop  Caldwell,  of  Madras,  referred  to  it,  a  genera- 
tion ago,  in  his  description  of  the  "  Devil  Dance " 
among  the  Tinnevelly  Shawars.^  The  devotee,  in  this 
dance,  "  cuts  and  lacerates  himself  till  the  blood  flows, 
lashes  himself  with  a  huge  whip,  presses  a  burning 
torch  to  his  breast,  drinks  the  blood  which  flows  from 
his  own  wounds,  or  drains  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice ; 
putting  the  throat  of  a  decapitated  goat  to  his  mouth." 
Hereby  he  has  given  of  his  own  blood  to  the  gods,  or 
to  the  devils,  and  has  drunk  of  the  substitute  blood 
of  the  divinities — in  the  consecrated  sacrifice ;  as  if  in 
consummation  of  the  blood-covenant  with  the  supernal 
powers.  "  Then  as  if  he  had  acquired  new  life  [through 
inter-union  with  the  object  of  his  worship],  he  begins 
to  brandish  his  staff  of  bells,  and  to  dance  with  a 
quick  but  wild  unsteady  step.  Suddenly  the  afflatus 
descends;  there  is  no  mistaking  that  glare  or  those 
frantic  leaps.  He  snorts,  he  swears,  he  gyrates. 
The  demon  has  now  taken  bodily  possession  of  him. 
[The   twain   are   one.      The  two   natures   are  inter- 

1  Cited  in  Adam's  Curiosities  of  Superstition. 


SIGNING  ONE'S  SOUL  AWAY.  93 

mingled].  .  .  .  The  devil-dancer  is  now  worshiped 
as  a  present  deity,  and  every  bystander  consults  him 
respecting  his  diseases,  his  wants,  the  welfare  of  his 
absent  relations,  the  offerings  to  be  made  for  the 
accomplishments  of  his  wishes,  and  in  short  everything 
for  which  superhuman  knowledge  is  supposed  to  be 
available."  In  this  instance,  the  mutual  covenant  is 
represented;  the  devotee  both  giving  and  receiving 
blood,  as  a  means  of  union. 

On  this  idea  of  giving  one's  self  to  another,  by  giv- 
ing of  one's  blood,  it  is,  that  the  popular  tradition  was 
based,  that  witches  and  sorcerers  covenanted  with  Sa- 
tan by  signing  a  compact  in  their  own  blood.  And 
again  it  was  in  recognition  of  the  idea  that  two  natures 
were  inter-united  in  such  a  covenant,  that  the  compact 
was  sometimes  said  to  be  signed  in  Satan's  blood. 

Among  the  many  women  charged  with  witchcraft  in 
England,  by  the  famous  Matthew  Hopkins,  the  "  witch- 
finder  "  in  the  middle  of  the  Seventeenth  century,  was 
one,  at  Yarmouth,  of  whom  it  is  reported,  that  her 
first  temptation  came  to  her  when  she  went  home  from 
her  place  of  employment,  discouraged  and  exasperated 
by  her  trials.  "  That  night  when  she  was  in  bed,  she 
heard  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  going  to  her  window, 
she  saw  (it  being  moonlight)  a  tall  black  man  there ; 
and  asked  what  he  would  have  ?  He  told  her  that  she 
was  discontented,  because  she  could  not  get  work ;  and 


94  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

that  he  would  put  her  into  a  way  that  she  should 
never  want  anything.  On  this  she  let  him  in,  and 
asked  him  what  he  had  to  say  to  her.  He  told  her  he 
must  first  see  her  hand ;  and  taking  out  something  like 
a  penknife,  he  gave  it  a  little  scratch,  so  that  a  little 
blood  followed ;  a  scar  being  still  visible  when  she  told 
the  story.  Then  he  took  some  of  the  blood  in  a  pen, 
and  pulling  a  book  out  of  his  pocket,  bid  her  write 
her  name ;  and  when  she  said  she  could  not,  he  said 
he  would  guide  her  hand.  When  this  was  done,  he 
bid  her  now  ask  what  she  would  have."  ^  In  signing 
with  her  own  blood,  she  had  pledged  her  very  life  to 
the  "tall  black  man." 

Cotton  Mather,  in  his  "Wonders  of  the  Invisible 
World,"  cites  a  Swedish  trial  for  witchcraft,  where  the 
possessed  children,  who  were  witnesses,  said  that  the 
witches,  at  the  trysting-place  where  they  were  observed, 
were  compelled  "to  give  themselves  unto  the  devil, 
and  vow  that  they  would  serve  him.  Hereupon  they 
cut  their  fingers,  and  with  blood  writ  their  names  in 
his  book."  In  some  cases  "  the  mark  of  the  cut  finger 
was  [still]  to  be  found."  Moreover  the  devil  gave 
meat  and  drink  both  to  the  witches  and  to  the  chil- 
dren they  brought  with  them.  Again,  Mather  cites 
the  testimony  of  a  witness  who  had  been  invited  to 
covenant  with  the  Devil,  by  signing  the  Devil's  book. 

^  Cited  in  Benson's  Remarkable  Trials  and  Notorious  Characters^  p.  II. 


THE  COMPACT  OF  FAUST  95 

"Once,  with  the  book,  there  was  a  pen  offered  him, 
and  an  inkhorn  with  Hquor  in  it  that  looked  Hke 
blood."  ^  Another  New  England  writer  on  witchcraft 
says  that  "  the  witch  as  a  slave  binds  herself  by  vow, 
to  believe  in  the  Devil,  and  to  give  him  either  body  or 
soul,  or  both,  under  his  handwriting,  or  some  part  of 
to  blood."  ^ 

It  is,  evidently,  on  this  popular  tradition,  that  Goethe's 
Faust  covenants  in  blood  with  Mephistopheles. 

MEPHISTOPHELES. 

"  But  one  thing ! — accidents  may  happen ;  hence 
A  line  or  two  m  writing  grant,  I  pray." 

FAUST. 


'  Spirit  of  evil !  what  dost  thou  require  ? 
Brass,  marble,  parchment,  paper,  dost  desire  ? 
Shall  I  with  chisel,  pen,  or  graver,  write  ? 
Thy  choice  is  free;  to  me  'tis  all  the  same." 

MEPHISTOPHELES. 

*  A  scrap  is  for  our  compact  good. 
Thou  under-signest  merely  with  a  drop  of  blood." 


"  Blood  is  a  juice  of  very  special  kind."  * 

Even  "  within  modern  memory  in  Europe,"  there 
have  been  traces  of  the  primitive  rite  of  covenanting 

*  Cited  in  Drake's    The   Witchcraft  Delusion  in  New  England^  I., 
7  >      ..  2  4.    3  jj^^^^  j^  ^^...     g^^^  ^^^  Appendix,  infra. 

^  Faust,   Swanwick's  translation,  Part  I.,  lines  1 360-1 386. 


96  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

with  God  by  the  proffer  of  one's  blood.  In  the  Rus- 
sian province  of  Esthonia,  he  who  would  observe  this 
rite,  "  had  to  draw  drops  of  blood  from  his  fore  finger," 
and  at  the  same  time  to  pledge  himself  in  solemn  cove- 
nant with  God.  "  I  name  thee  [I  invoke  thee]  with 
my  blood,  and  [I]  betroth  thee  [I  entrust  myself  to 
thee]  with  my  blood," — was  the  form  of  his  covenant- 
ing. Then  he  who  had  given  of  his  blood  in  self-sur- 
rendering devotedness,  made  his  confident  supplica- 
tions to  God  with  whom  he  had  thus  covenanted ;  and 
his  prayer  in  behalf  of  all  his  possessions  was :  "  Let 
them  be  blessed  through  my  blood  and  thy  might."  ^ 

Thus,  in  ancient  Egypt,  in  ancient  Canaan,  in  an- 
cient Mexico,  in  modern  Turkey,  in  modern  Russia, 
in  modern  India,  and  in  modern  Otaheite ;  in  Africa, 
in  Asia,  in  America,  in  Europe,  and  in  Oceanica: 
Blood-giving  was  life-giving.  Life-giving  was  love- 
showing.  Love-showing  was  a  heart-yearning  after 
union  in  love  and  in  life  and  in  blood  and  in  very  being. 
That  was  the  primitive  thought  in  the  primitive  relig- 
ions of  all  the  world. 

^  See  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  II.,  402 ;  citing  Boeder's  Ehsten 
Aberglaubische  Gebrauche,  4. 


LECTURE  II. 

SUGGESTIONS  AND  PERVERSIONS   OF 
THE  RITE. 


II. 

SUGGESTIONS  AND    PERVERSIONS   OF 
THE   RITE. 


I.    SACREDNESS   OF    BLOOD   AND   OF   THE    HEART. 

Apart  from,  and  yet  linked  with,  the  expHcit  proofs 
of  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting  throughout  the  prim- 
itive world,  there  are  many  indications  of  the  root- 
idea  of  this  form  of  covenanting ;  in  the  popular  esti- 
mate of  blood,  and  of  all  the  marvelous  possibilities 
through  blood-transference.  These  indications,  also, 
are  of  old,  and  from  everywhere. 

To  go  back  again  to  the  earlier  written  history  of 
the  world ;  it  is  evident  that  the  ancient  Egyptians 
recognized  blood  as  in  a  peculiar  sense  life  itself;  and 
that  they  counted  the  heart, — as  the  blood-source  and 
the  blood-centre, — the  symbol  and  the  substance  of 
life.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  the  deceased  speaks 
of  his  heart, — or  his  blood-fountain, — as  his  life ;  and 
as  giving  him  the  right  to  appear  in  the  presence  of 
the  gods :  "  My  heart  was  my  mother ;  my  heart  was 
my  mother ;  my  heart  was  my  being  on  earth ;  placed 

99 


lOO  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

within  me ;  returned  to  me  by  the  chief  gods,  placing 
me  before  the  gods  "^  [in  the  presence  of  the  gods]. 
In  the  process  of  embalming,  the  heart  was  always 
preserved  with  jealous  care; ^  and  sometimes  it  was 
embalmed  by  itself  in  a  sepulchral  vase.^  It  was  the 
heart — as  the  life,  which  is  the  blood — that  seems  to 
have  been  put  into  the  scales  of  the  divine  Judge  for 
the  settling  of  the  soul's  destiny;'*  according  to  all  the 
Egyptian  pictures  of  the  judgment.  Throughout  the 
Book  of  the  Dead,  and  in  all  the  sacred  teachings  and 
practices  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  with  reference  to 
human  life  and  human  destiny,  the  heart  is  obviously 
recognized  as  the  analogon  of  blood,  and  blood  as  the 
analogon  of  life.  Moreover,  the  life,  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  blood  and  by  the  heart,  appears  to  be 
counted  peculiarly  the  gift  and  the  guarded  treasure 
of  Deity,  and  as  being  in  itself  a  resemblance  to,  if 
not  actually  a  part  of,  the  divine  nature.^ 

"^  Egypt's  Place,  V.  i88. 

*  This  is  illustrated  by  Ebers,  in  his  romance  of  "Uarda;"  where 
the  surgeon,  Nebsecht,  finds  such  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  human  heart, 
in  order  to  its  anatomical  study.  See,  also,  Birch's  statement,  in  Egypt's 
Place,  v.,  135,  and  Pierret's  Diet.  d'Arch.^gypt.,  s.v.  "Coeur." 

'  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  472,  note  6.  *  Ibid.,  III.,  466,  note  3. 

*  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  Chapter  xxxvi.  tells  "  How  a  Person  has 
his  Heart  made  (or  given)  to  him  in  the  Hades."  And  in  preparing 
the  mummy,  a  scarabaeus, — a  symbol  of  the  creative  or  life-giving  god 
— ^was  put  in  the  place  of  the  heart.  (See  Rubric,  chapter  xxx.,  Book  of 
the  Dead;  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  346,486;  also,  note  in  Uarda,l.,y:>$  f.). 


GUARDING    THE  H^ARTy  '  ^     '   'lO'l' 

Even  of  the  lower  animals,  the  heart  and  the  heart's 
blood  were  counted  sacred  to  the  gods,  and  were  not 
to  be  eaten  by  the  Egyptians ;  as  if  life  belonged  only 
to  the  Giver  of  life,  and,  when  passing  out  from  a 
lower  organism,  must  return,  or  be  returned,  only  to 
its  original  Source. 

When  the  soul  stands  before  the  forty-two  judges, 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Two  Truths,  to  give  answer  con- 
cerning its  sins,  one  of  its  protesting  avowals,  as 
recorded  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  is  :  "  Oh  Glowing 
Feet,  coming  out  of  the  darkness  !  I  have  not  eaten 
the  heart ; "  ^  In  my  earthly  life-course,  I  have  not 
committed  the  sacrilege  of  heart-eating.  Yet,  of  the 
sacrificial  offering  of  "  a  red  cow,"  as  prescribed  in  the 
Book  of  the  Dead,  "  of  the  blood  squeezed  from  the 
heart,  one  hundred  drops,"  ^  make  a  portion  for  the 
gods.  In  one  of  the  tombs  of  Memphis,  there  is 
represented  a  scene  of  slaughtering  animals.  As  the 
heart  of  an  animal  is  taken  out,  the  butcher  who  holds 
it  says, — as  shown  by  the  accompanying  hieroglyphics, 
— "  Take  care  of  this  heart ;  "  ^  as  if  that  were  a  por- 
tion to  be  guarded  sacredly.  "  Keep  thy  heart  with 
all  diligence  [or,  as  the  margin  has  it,  "  above  all  thou 
guardest"];  for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life."''  It 
may,  indeed,  have  been  from  the  lore  of  Egypt  that 

1  Egyp^s  Place,  V.,  14.  2  /^^-^.^  y.,  283. 

^Anc.  Egypt.,  II.,  27,  note.  *Prov.  4:  23. 

9* 


c        etc 


c  c    cj^^  c      c  c        sj^j^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Solomon  obtained  this  proverb  of  the  ages,  to  pass  it 
onward  to  posterity  with  his  stamp  of  inspiration. 

It  would  even  seem  that  the  blood  of  animals  was 
not  allowed  to  be  eaten  by  the  Egyptians ;  although 
there  has  been  a  question  at  that  point,  among 
Egyptologists.  Wilkinson  thinks  that  they  did  em- 
ploy it  in  cooking;^  but  this  is  only  his  inference 
from  a  pictured  representation  of  the  blood  being 
caught  in  a  vessel,  when  an  animal,  is  slaughtered  for 
the  table.  On  the  other  hand,  that  same  picture  shows 
the  vessel  of  blood  being  borne  away,  afterwards,  on 
uplifted  hands  ;^  as  it  would  have  been  if  it  were 
designed  for  a  sacred  libation.  Again,  the  other 
picture,  reported  by  Birch,  as  showing  the  butcher's 
care  of  the  heart,  represents  the  blood  as  "  collected 
in  a  jar  with  a  long  spout " ;  such  as  was  used  for 
sacred  libations.^  It  is  evident  that  blood  was  offered 
to  the  gods  of  Egypt  in  libation,  as  was  also  wine.'* 
Indeed  the  common  Egyptian  word  for  blood  (  f^"^"^^*^  ^ 
senf)  is  regularly  followed  by  the  determinative  of 
outpouring  {/''^).  The  word  tesher,  "  red,"  is  some- 
times used  as  a  synonym  for  senf;  in  this  case  (and  in 
this  only)  the  determinative  of  outpouring  is  added  to 

'^Anc.  Egypt,  II.,  27,  31 ;  III.,  409. 

« Ibid.t  II.,  32,  Plate  No.  300.  ^  ^^-^^  ji^  27  note  I. 

*Comp.  Ibid.y  III.,  409,  416  f. 


THE  TALE  OF  THE   TWO  BROTHERS.    I03 

the  hieroglyphics  for  tesher.  Moreover,  among  th^ 
forty -two  judges,  before  whom  the  dead  appears,  he 
who  is  "  Eater  of  Blood  "  comes  next  in  order  before 
the  "  Eater  of  Hearts " ;  ^  as  if  blood-eating,  like 
heart-eating,  were  a  prerogative  of  the  gods. 

If  proof  were  still  wanting  that,  in  ancient  Egypt,  it 
was  the  heart  which  was  deemed  the  epitome  of  life, 
and  that  the  heart  had  this  pre-eminence  because  of  its 
being  the  fountain  of  blood — which  is  life — that  proof 
would  be  found  in  "  The  Tale  of  the  Two  Brothers  "  ; 
a  story  that  was  prepared  in  its  present  form  by  a 
tutor  of  the  Pharaoh  of  the  exodus,  while  the  latter 
was  yet  heir  presumptive  to  the  throne.  This  story 
has  been  the  subject  of  special  study  by  De  Rouge, 
Chabas,  Maspero,  Brugsch,  Birch,  Goodwin,  and  Le 
Page  Renouf  It  is  from  the  latter's  translation,  that 
I  draw  my  facts  for  this  reference.^ 

Anpu  and  Bata  were  brothers.  Bata's  experience 
with  the  wife  of  Anpu  was  like  that  of  Joseph  in  the 
house  of  Potiphar.  He  was  true,  like  Joseph.  Like 
Joseph,  he  was  falsely  accused,  his  life  was  sought, 
and  his  innocence  was  vindicated.  Then,  for  his 
better  protection,  Bata  took  his  heart  out  from  his 
body,  and  put  that  in  a  safe  place,  while  he  made  his 
home  near  it.     To  his  brother  he  had  said : 

"  I  shall  take  my  heart,  and  place  it  in  the  top  of 

1  See  Egypt's  Place,  V.,  254.  2  Rec.  of  Past,  II.,  137-152. 


I04  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  flower  of  the  cedar,  and  when  the  cedar  is  cut 
down  it  will  fall  to  the  ground.  Thou  shalt  come  to 
seek  it.  If  thou  art  seven  years  in  search  of  it,  let  not 
thy  heart  be  depressed,  and  when  thou  hast  found  it 
thou  shalt  place  it  in  a  cup  of  cold  water.  Oh,  then  I 
shall  live  (once  more)." 

After  a  time  the  cedar,  through  the  treachery  of 
Bata's  false  wife,  was  cut  down.  As  it  fell,  with  the 
heart  of  Bata,  the  latter  dropped  dead.  For  more 
than  three  years  Anpu  sought  his  brother's  heart; 
then  he  found  it.  "  He  brought  a  vessel  of  cold  water, 
dropped  the  heart  into  it,  and  sat  down  according  to 
his  daily  wont.  But  when  the  night  was  come,  the 
heart  absorbed  the  water.  Bata  [whose  body  seems 
to  have  been  preserved — like  a  mummy — all  this  time] 
trembled  in  all  his  limbs,  and  continued  looking  at  his 
elder  brother,  but  his  heart  was  faint.  Then  Anpu 
took  the  vessel  of  cold  water  which  his  brother's 
heart  was  in.  And  when  the  latter  [Bata]  had  drunk  it 
up,  his  heart  rose  in  its  place ;  and  he  became  as  he  had 
been  before.  Each  embraced  the  other,  and  each  one 
of  them  held  conversation  with  his  companion." 

The  revivified  Bata  was  transformed  into  a  sacred 
bull,  an  Apis.  That  bull,  by  the  treachery,  again,  of 
Bata's  wife,  was  killed.  "And  as  they  were  killing 
him,  and  he  was  in  the  hands  of  his  attendants,  he 
shook  his  neck,  and  two  drops  of  blood  fell  upon  the 


THE  HEART  AS  AN  OFFERING.  105 

two  door-posts  of  His  Majesty  [in  whose  keeping  was 
the  sacred  bull]  ;  one  was  on  the  one  side  of  the  great 
staircase  of  His  Majesty,  the  other  upon  the  other 
side ;  and  they  grew  up  into  two  mighty  persea  trees, 
each  of  which  stood  alone."  Thus  the  blood  was 
both  life  and  life-giving,  and  the  heart  was  as  the 
very  soul  of  its  possessor,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians. 

In  primitive  America  also,  as  in  ancient  Egypt,  the 
blood  and  the  heart,  were  held  pre-eminently  sacred. 
Among  the  Dakotas,  in  North  America,  the  heart  of 
the  deer  and  of  other  animals  killed  in  hunting,  was 
offered  to  the  spirits.^  In  Central  America  and  in  South 
America,  it  was  the  blood  and  the  heart  of  the  human 
victims  offered  in  sacrifice,  which  were  counted  the 
peculiar  portion  of  the  gods.^  In  description  of  a 
human  sacrifice  among  the  Nahuas  of  Central  Amer- 
ica,^ a  Mexican  historian  says  :  "  The  high  priest  then 
approached,  and  with  a  heavy  knife  of  obsidian  cut 
open  the  miserable  man's  breast.  Then,  with  a  dex- 
terity acquired  by  long  practice,  the  sacrificer  tore 
forth  the  yet  palpitating  heart,  which  he  first  offered 

'  See  Lynd's  Hist,  of  Dakotas,  p.  73. 

2  See   citations  from  various  original  sources,  in  Bancroft's  Native 
Races  of  Pacific  Coast,  IT,,  306-310,  707-709. 

3  The  Nahuas  were  "  skilled  ones,"  or  "experts,"  who  had  emigrated 
Northward  from  the  Maya  land  (R6ville's  Native  Religions,  p.  20). 


I06  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

to  the  sun,  and  then  threw  at  the  feet  of  the  idol. 
Taking  it  up,  he  again  offered  it  to  the  god,  and  after- 
wards burned  it ;  preserving  the  ashes  with  great  care 
and  veneration.  Sometimes  the  heart  was  placed  in 
the  mouth  [of  the  idol]  with  a  golden  spoon.  It  was 
customary  also  to  anoint  the  lips  of  the  image,  and 
the  cornices  of  the  door  with  the  victim's  blood."  ^ 

Of  the  method  among  the  Maya  nations,^  south  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  a  Spanish  historian  ^  says  :  "  The 
bleeding  and  quivering  heart  was  held  up  to  the  sun, 
and  then  thrown  into  a  bowl  prepared  for  its  reception. 
An  assistant  priest  sucked  the  blood  from  the  gash  in 
the  chest,  through  a  hollow  cane ;  the  end  of  which 
he  elevated  towards  the  sun,  and  then  discharged  its 
contents  into  a  plume-bordered  cup  held  by  the  captor 
of  the  prisoner  just  slain.  This  cup  was  carried 
around  to  all  the  idols  in  the  temples  and  chapels,  be- 
fore whom  another  blood-filled  tube  was  held  up,  as 
if  to  give  them  a  taste  of  the  contents.  This  cere- 
mony performed,  the  cup  was  left  at  the  palace." 

Yet  another  record  stands :  "  The  guardian  of  the 
temple     .     .     .     opened  the  left  breast  of  the  victim, 

^Clavigero's  Anc.  Hist,  of  Mex.y  II.,  45-49,  cited  in  Bancroft's  Na- 
tive Races^  II.,  307. 

2  The  proper  centre  of  the  Maya  nations  lay  in  Yucatan  (R6ville's 
Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru^  p.  18). 

8  Gomara,  cited  in  Bancroft's  Native  Racesy  II.,  310  f. 


THE  HEART  OF  BRUCE.  1 07 

tore  out  the  heart,  and  handed  it  to  the  high  priest, 
who  placed  it  in  a  small  embroidered  purse  which  he 
carried.  The  four  [assisting]  priests  received  the  blood 
of  the  victim  in  four  jicaras  or  bowls,  made  from  the 
shell  of  a  certain  fruit ;  and  descending,  one  after  the 
other,  to  the  court  yard,  [they]  sprinkled  the  blood 
with  their  right  hand  in  the  direction  of  the  cardinal 
points  [of  the  compass].  If  any  blood  remained  over, 
they  returned  it  to  the  high  priest,  who  placed  it,  with 
the  purse  containing  the  heart,  in  the  body  of  the  vic- 
tim, through  the  wound  that  had  been  made ;  and  the 
body  was  interred  in  the  temple."^ 

Commenting  on  these  customs  in  Central  America, 
Reville — the  representative  comparative-religionist  of 
France — says  :  "  Here  you  will  recognize  that  idea,  so 
widely  spread  in  the  two  Americas,  and  indeed  almost 
everywhere  amongst  uncivilized  peoples  [nor  is  it 
limited  to  the  uncivilized],  that  the  heart  is  the  epi- 
tome, so  to  speak,  of  the  individual — his  soul  in  some 
sense — so  that  to  appropriate  his  heart  is  to  appropri- 
ate his  whole  being."  ^  What  else  than  this  gave  rise 
to  the  thought  of  preserving  the  heart  of  a  hero,  or 
of  a  loved  one,  as  a  symbol  of  the  living  presence  of 
the   dead?     It  was  by  his  heart,  that   King  Robert 

*  Herrera,  cited  in  Bancroft's  Native  Racesy  II.,  706  f. 
2  Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru  (Hibbert   Lectures,  1884), 
p.  43  f.     See,  also,  pp.  45,  46,  82,  99. 


I08  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Bruce  was  to  lead  his  army  to  the  Holy  Land ;  and 
how  many  times,  in  history,  have  men  bequeathed 
their  hearts  to  those  dear  to  them,  as  the  poet  Shel- 
ley's heart  was  preserved  by  his  friends,  and  by  them 
given  to  Mrs.  Shelley. 

In  the  Greek  and  Roman  sacrifices,  it  was  the  blood 
of  the  victim,  which,  as  the  life  of  the  victim,  was 
poured  out  unto  the  gods,  as  unto  the  Author  of 
life.^  Moreover,  there  is  reason  for  supposing  that  the 
heart  was  always  given  the  chief  place,  as  representing 
the  very  life  itself,  in  the  examination  and  in  the 
tasting  of  the  "  entrails "  (<r;rAa^;^va,  splangkJmd)  in 
connection  with  the  sacrifices  of  those  classic  peo- 
ples.^ An  indication  of  this  truth  is  found  in  a 
statement  by  Cicero,  concerning  the  sacrifices  at  the 
time  of  the  inauguration  of  Caesar :  "  When  he 
[Caesar]  was  sacrificing  on  that  day  in  which  he  first 
sat  in  the  golden  chair,  and  made  procession  in  the 
purple  garment,  there  was  no  heart  among  the  entrails 
of  the  sacrificial  ox.  (Do  you  think,  therefore,  that 
any  animal  which  has  blood  can  exist  without  a  heart  ?) 
Yet  he  [Caesar]  was  not  terrified  by  the  phenomenal 
nature  of  the  event,  although  Spurinna  declared,  that 

*See  Pindax's  Olympian  Odes,  Ode  i,  line  146;  Sophocles  Txzx^xx^^ 
line  766;  Virgil's  ^neid,  Bk.  XI.,  line  81  f. 

2  Homer's  Odyssey,  Bk.  III.,  lines  II,  12,  461-463;  Iliads  Bk.  II., 
lines  427,  428. 


BLOOD  LIBATIONS.  1 09 

it  was  to  be  feared  that  both  mind  [literally  '  counsel '] 
and  life  were  about  to  fail  him  [Caesar] ;  for  both  of 
these  [mind  and  life]  do  issue  from  the  heart."  ^ 

Similarly  it  has  been,  and  to  the  present  day  it  is, 
with  primitive  peoples  everywhere.  Blood  libations 
were  made  a  prominent  feature  in  the  offerings  in 
ancient  Phoenicia,^  as  in  Egypt.  In  India,  the  Brah- 
mans  have  a  saying,  in  illustration  of  the  claim  that 
Vishnu  and  Siva  are  of  one  and  the  same  nature: 
"  The  heart  of  Vishnu  is  Siva,  and  the  heart  of  Siva 
is  Vishnu ;  and  those  who  think  they  differ,  err."  * 
The  Hindoo  legends  represent  the  victim's  heart  as  be- 
ing torn  out  and  given  to  the  one  whom  in  life  he  has 
wronged.^  In  China,  at  the  great  Temple  of  Heaven, 
in  Peking,  where  the  emperors  of  China  are  supposed 
to  have  conducted  worship  without  material  change 
in  its  main  features  for  now  nearly  three  thousand 
years,^  the  blood  of  the  animal  sacrifice  is  buried  in 
the  earth  ^  while  the  body  of  the  sacrificial  victim  is 
offered  as  a  whole  burnt  offering.^ 

1  Cicero's  De  Divinatione,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  52,  \  119. 
*  See  Sanchoniathon's'  references  to  blood  libations,  in  Cory's  Ancient 
Fragments,  pp.  7,  ii,  16. 

^  See  "  The  Hindu  Pantheon,"  in  Bird  wood's  Indian  ArtSy  p.  96. 

*  Frere's  Old  Deccan  Days,  p.  266. 

^Williams's  Middle  Kingdom,  I.,  194. 

*  Edkins's  Religion  in  China,  p.  22. 

'  Williams's  Mid.  King.,  I.,  76-78. 


no  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

The  blood  is  the  life ;  the  heart  as  the  fountain  of 
blood  is  the  fountain  of  life ;  both  blood  and  heart  are 
sacred  to  the  Author  of  life.  The  possession,  or  the 
gift,  of  the  heart  or  of  the  blood,  is  the  possession,  or 
the  gift,  of  the  very  nature  of  its  primal  owner.  That 
has  been  the  world's  thought  in  all  the  ages. 

2.    VIVIFYING   POWER   OF   BLOOD. 

The  belief  seems  to  have  been  universal,  not  only 
that  the  blood  is  the  life  of  the  organism  in  which  it 
originally  flows,  but  that  in  its  fransfer  from  one  or- 
ganism to  another  the  blood  retains  its  life,  and  so 
•  carries  with  it  a  vivifying  power.  There  are  traces  of  this 
belief  in  the  earliest  legends  of  the  Old  World,  and  of 
the  New ;  in  classic  story ;  and  in  medical  practices  as 
well,  all  the  world  over,  from  time  immemorial  until 
the  present  day. 

For  example,  in  an  inscription  from  the  Egyptian 
monuments,  the  original  of  which  dates  back  to  the 
early  days  of  Moses,  there  is  a  reference  to  a  then  an- 
cient legend  of  the  rebellion  of  mankind  against  the 
gods ;  of  an  edict  of  destruction  against  the  human 
race ;  and  of  a  divine  interposition  for  the  rescue  of 
the  doomed  peoples.^     In  that  legend,  a  prominent 

1  The  inscription  was  first  found,  in  1875,  ^^  the  tomb  of  Setee  I., 
the  father  of  Rameses  11.,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  oppression.  A  transla- 
tion of  it  appeared  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Arch' 


MAN'S  RE-  ORE  A  TION.  1 1 1 

part  is  given  to  human  blood,  mingled  with  the  juice 
of  mandrakes^ — instead  of  wine — prepared  as  a  drink 
of  the  gods,  and  afterwards  poured  out  again  to  over- 
flow and  to  revivify  all  the  earth.  And  the  ancient 
text  which  records  this  legend,  affirms  that  it  was  va. 
conjunction  with  these  events,  that  there  was  the  be- 
ginning of  sacrifices  in  the  world. 

An  early  American  legend  has  points  of  remarka- 
ble correspondence  with  this  one  from  ancient  Egypt. 
It  relates,  as  does  that,  to  a  pre-historic  destruction  of 
the  race,  and  to  its  re-creation,  or  its  re-vivifying,  by 
means  of  transferred  blood.     Every  Mexican  province 

aology^  Vol.  4,  Part  I.  Again  it  has  been  found,  in  the  tomb  of  Ra- 
meses  III.  Its  earliest  and  its  latest  translations  were  made  by  M. 
Edouard  Naville,  the  eminent  Swiss  Egyptologist.  Meantime,  Brugsch, 
De  Bergmann,  Lauth,  Lefebure,  and  others,  have  aided  in  its  elucida- 
tion (See  Proceed,  of  Sac.  of  Bib.  Arch.,  for  March  3,  1885). 

Is  there  not  a  reference  to  this  legend  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  chapter 
xviii.,  sixth  section  ?  , 

*  Mandrakes,  or  "  love-apples,"  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  as  also 
among  the  Orientals  generally,  from  the  days  of  Jacob  (Gen.  30:  14-17) 
until  to-day,  carried  the  idea  of  promoting  a  loving  union ;  and  the 
Egyptian  name  for  mandrakes — tetmut — combined  the  root-word  tet  al- 
ready referred  to  as  meaning  "arm,"  or  "bracelet,"  and  mut — with  the 
signification  of  "  attesting,"  or  "  confirming."  Thus  the  blood  and  the 
mandrake  juice  would  be  a  true  assiratum.  (See  Pierret's  Vocabulaire 
HUroglyphique,  p.  723.)  "  Belief  in  this  plant  [the  mandrake]  is  as  old 
as  history."  (Napier's  Folk-Lore,  p.  90.)  See,  also,  Lang's  Custom 
and  Mythy  pp.  143-155. 


112  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

told  this  story  in  its  own  way,  says  a  historian ;  but 
the  main  features  of  it  are  alike  in  all  its  versions. 

When  there  were  no  more  men  remaining  on  the 
earth,  some  of  the  gods  desired  the  re-creation  of  man- 
kind ;  and  they  asked  help  from  the  supreme  deities 
accordingly.  They  were  then  told,  that  if  they  were 
to  obtain  the  bones,  or  the  ashes  of  the  former  race, 
they  could  revivify  those  remains  by  their  own  blood. 
Thereupon  Xolotl,  one  of  the  gods,  descended  to  the 
place  of  the  dead,  and  obtained  a  bone  (whether  a  rib^ 
or  not,  does  not  appear).  Upon  that  vestige  of  hu- 
manity, the  gods  dropped  blood  drawn  from  their  own 
bodies;  and  the  result  was  a  new  vivifying  of  mankind.^ 

An  ancient  Chaldean  legend,  as  recorded  by  Berosus, 
ascribes  a  new  creation  of  mankind  to  the  mixture  by 
the  gods  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  with  the  blood  that 
flowed  from  the  severed  head  of  the  god  Belus.  "  On 
this  account  it  is  that  men  are  rational,  and  partake  of 
divine  knowledge,"  says  Berosus.'^  The  blood  of  the 
god  gives  them  the  life  and  the  nature  of  a  god.  Yet, 
again,  the  early  Phoenician,  and  the  early  Greek,  the- 
ogonies,  as  recorded  by  Sanchoniathon^  and  by  Hes- 
iod,^  ascribe  the  vivifying  of  mankind  to  the  outpoured 

1  Mendieta's  Hist.  Ecd.  Ind.,  77  fF. ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc,  II., 
38;  also  Brinton's  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  258. 

*  See  Cory's  Anc.  Frag.,  p.  59  f,  '  Ibid.,  p.  15. 

*Comp.  Fabri's  Evagatorium,  III.,  218. 


LIFE   TO    THE  DEAD.  1 13 

blood  of  the  gods.  It  was  from  the  blood  of  Ouranos, 
or  of  Saturn,  dripping  into  the  sea  and  mingling  with 
its  foam,  that  Venus  was  formed,  to  become  the  mo- 
ther of  her  heroic  posterity.  "The  Orphics,  which 
have  borrowed  so  largely  from  the  East,"  says  Len- 
ormant,^  "  said  that  the  immaterial  part  of  man,  his 
soul  [his  life],  sprang  from  the  blood  of  Dionysus 
Zagreus,  whom  .  .  .  Titans  had  torn  to  pieces, 
partly  devouring  his  members." 

Homer  explicitly  recognizes  this  universal  belief  in 
the  power  of  blood  to  convey  life,  and  to  be  a  means 
of  revivifying  the  dead.     When  Circe  sent  Odysseus, 

"To  consult 
The  Theban  seer,  Tiresias,  in  the  abode 
Of  Pluto  and  the  dreaded  Proserpine." 

she  directed  him,  in  preparation,  to 

"Pour  to  all  the  dead 
Libations, — milk  and  honey  first,  and  next 
Rich  wine,  and  lastly  water ; " 

and  after  that  to  slay  the  sacrificial  sheep.  But  Circe's 
caution  was : 

"  Draw  then  the  sword  upon  thy  thigh,  and  sit, 
And  suffer  none  of  all  those  airy  forms 
To  touch  the  blood,  until  thou  first  bespeak 
Tiresias.     He  will  come,  and  speedily, — 
The  leader  of  the  people, — and  will  tell 
What  voyage  thou  must  make." 

*  Beginnings  of  History ^  p.  52,  note. 
10* 


114  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Odysseus  did  as  he  was  directed.  The  bloodless 
shades  flocked  about  him,  as  he  sat  there  guarding  the 
life-renewing  blood ;  but  even  those  dearest  to  him,  he 
forbade  to  touch  that  consecrated  draught. 

"  And  then  the  soul  of  Anticleia  came, — 
My  own  dead  mother,  daughter  of  the  king 
Autolycus,  large  minded.     Her  I  left 
Alive,  what  time  I  sailed  for  Troy,  and  now 
I  wept  to  see  her  there,  and  pitied  her, 
And  yet  forbade  her,  though  with  grief,  to  come 
Near  to  the  blood  till  I  should  first  accost 
Tiresias.     He  too  came,  the  Theban  seer, 
Tiresias,  bearing  in  his  hand  a  wand 
Of  gold ;  he  knew  me  and  bespake  me  thus  : — 

*  Why,  O  unhappy  mortal,  hast  thou  left 
The  light  of  day  to  come  among  the  dead. 
And  to  this  joyless  land  ?     Go  from  the  trench 
And  turn  thy  sword  away,  that  I  may  drink 
The  blood,  and  speak  the  word  of  prophecy.' 
He  spake ;  withdrawing  from  the  trench,  I  thrust 
Into  its  sheath  my  silver-studded  sword. 
And,  after  drinking  of  the  dark  red  blood. 
The  blameless  prophet  turned  to  me  and  said — "  ^ 

Then,  came  the  prophecy,  from  the  blood-revivified  seer. 
The  wide-spread  popular  superstition  of  the  vam- 
pire and  of  the  ghoul,  seems  to  be  an  outgrowth  of 
this  universal  belief,  that  transfused  blood  is  re-vivifica- 
tion.  The  bloodless  shades,  leaving  their  graves  at 
night,  seek  renewed  life,  by  drawing  out  the  blood  of 

1  Bryant's  Odyssey ^  Bks.  x.  and  xi. 


BLOOD    TRANSFUSION.  115 

those  who  sleep ;  taking  of  the  life  of  the  living,  to 
supply  temporary  life  to  the  dead.  This  idea  was 
prevalent  in  ancient  Babylon  and  Assyria.^  It  has 
shown  itself  in  the  Old  World  and  in  the  New/  in  all 
the  ages ;  and  even  within  a  little  more  than  a  century, 
it  has  caused  an  epidemic  of  fear  in  Hungary,  "result- 
ing in  a  general  disinterment,  and  the  burning  or  stak- 
ing of  the  suspected  bodies."^ 

An  added  force  is  given  to  all  these  illustrations  of 
the  universal  belief  that  transferred  blood  has  a  vivify- 
ing power,  by  the  conclusions  of  modern  medical 
science,  concerning  the  possible  benefits  of  blood- 
transfusion.*  On  this  point,  one  of  the  foremost  living 
authorities  in  this  department  of  practice.  Dr.  Roussel, 
of  Geneva,  says :  "  The  great  vitality  of  the  blood  of 
a  vigorous  and  healthy  man  has  the  power  of  improv- 
ing the  quality  of  the  patient's  blood,  and  can  restore 
activity  to  the  centres  of  nervous  force,  and  the  organs 
of  digestion.      It  would  seem  that  health  itself  can  be 

*  See  Sayce's  Anc.  Emp.  of  East,  p.  146. 

^  Among  the  ancient  Peruvians,  there  was  said  to  be  a  class  of  devil- 
worshipers,  known  as  canchus.  or  rumapjnicuc^  the  members  of  which 
sucked  the  blood  from  sleeping  youth,  to  their  own  nourishing  and  to 
the  speedy  dying  away  of  the  persons  thus  depleted.  (See  Arriaga's 
Extirpacion  de  la  Idolatria  del  Pirzc,  p.  21  f.;  cited  in  Spencer's  Z>^j. 
Soc,  IL,  48.).     See,  also,  Ralston's  Russian  Folk  Tales,  pp.  311-328. 

*  Farrer's  Primitive  Manners  and  Customs,  p.  23  f. 
*The  primitive  belief  seems  to  have  had  a  sound  basis  in  scientific  fact. 


Il6  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

transfused  with  the  blood  of  a  healthy  man''' ;'^  death 
itself  being  purged  out  of  the  veins  by  inflowing  Hfe. 
And  in  view  of  the  possibiUties  of  new  Hfe  to  a  dying 
one,  through  new  blood  from  one  full  of  life,  this 
writer  insists,  that  "  every  adult  and  healthy  man  and 
woman  should  be  ready  to  offer  an  arm,  as  the  natural 
and  mysteriously  inexhaustible  source  of  the  wonder- 
working elixir."  ^  Blood-giving  can  be  life-giving. 
The  measure  of  one's  love  may,  indeed,  in  such  a  case, 
be  tested  by  the  measure  of  his  yielded  blood.^ 

Roussel  says,  that  blood  transfusion  was  practised 
by  the  Egyptians,  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Syrians,  in 
ancient  times ;''  and  he  cites  the  legend,  that  before 
Naaman  came  to  Elisha  to  be  healed  of  his  leprosy,^ 
his  physicians,  in  their  effort  at  his  cure,  took  the  blood 
from  his  veins,  and  replaced  it  with  other  blood. 
Whatever  basis  of  truth  there  may  be  in  this  legend,  it 
clearly  gained  its  currency  through  the  prevailing  con- 
viction that  new  blood  is  new  life.  There  certainly  is 
ample  evidence  that  baths  of  human  blood  were  an- 
ciently prescribed  as  a  cure  for  the  death-representing 
leprosy ;  as  if  in  recognition  of  this  root  idea  of  the 
re-vivifying  power  of  transferred  blood. 

Pliny,  writing  eighteen    centuries  ago,  concerning 

^  Transfusion  of  Human  Blood,  pp.  2-4.  '  Ibid.,  p.  5. 

^  See  pages  85-88,  supra.  *  Trans f  of  Blood,  p.  5. 

*  2  Kings  5  :  1-14. 


AMVS  AND  AMYLION.  1 17 

leprosy,  or  elephantiasis,  says^ :  "  This  was  the  peculiar 
disease  of  Egypt ;  and  when  it  fell  upon  princes,  woe 
to  the  people ;  for,  in  the  bathing  chambers,  tubs  were 
prepared,  with  human  blood,  for  the  cure  of  it."  Nor 
was  this  mode  of  life-seeking  confined  to  the  Egyptians. 
It  is  said  that  the  Emperor  Constantine  was  restrained 
from  it,  only  in  consequence  of  a  vision  from  heaven.^ 

In  the  early  English  romance  of  Amys  and  Amylion, 
one  of  these  knightly  brothers-in-arms  consents,  with 
his  wife's  full  approbation,  to  yield  the  lives  of  his  two 
infant  children,  in  order  to  supply  their  blood  for  a 
bath,  for  the  curing  of  his  brother  friend's  leprosy.^  In 
this  instance,  the  leprosy  is  cured,  and  the  children's 
lives  are  miraculously  restored  to  them ;  as  if  in  proof 
of  the  divine  approbation  of  the  loving  sacrifice. 

It  is  shown,  indeed,  that  this  belief  in  the  life-bring- 
ing power  of  baths  of  blood,  to  the  death-smitten 
lepers,  was  continued  into  the  Middle  Ages;  and  that 
it  finally  "  received  a  check  from  an  opinion  gradually 
gaining  ground,  that  only  the  blood  of  those  would 
be  efficacious,  who  offered  themselves  freely  and  vol- 
untarily for  a  beloved  sufferer."^     There  is  something 

*  Hist.  Nat.  xxvi.,  5. 
•  See  Notes  and  Queries^  for  Feb.  28,  1857 ;  with  citation  from  Soane's 
New  Curiosities  of  Litey-ature,  I.,  72. 

^  Ibid. ;  also  Mills's  History  of  Chivalry,  chap.  IV.,  note. 
*  See  citation  from  Soane,  in  Notes  and  Queries,  supra. 


Il8  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

very  suggestive  in  this  thought  of  the  truest  potency 
of  transferred  hfe  through  transferred  blood !  It  is  this 
thought  which  finds  expression  and  illustration  in 
Longfellow's  Golden  Legend.  In  the  castle  of  Vauts- 
berg  on  the  Rhine,  Prince  Henry  is  sick  with  a  strange 
and  hopeless  malady.  Lucifer  appears  to  him  in  the 
garb  of  a  traveling  physician,  and  tells  him  of  the  only 
possible  cure  for  his  disease,  as  prescribed  in  a  venera- 
ble tome : 

*•  *  The  only  remedy  that  remains 

Is  the  blood  that  flows  from  a  maiden's  veins. 
Who  of  her  own  free  will  shall  die, 
And  give  her  life  as  the  price  of  yours  ! ' 
That  is  the  strangest  of  all  cures. 
And  one,  I  think,  you  will  never  try ; 
The  prescription  you  may  well  put  by, 
As  something  impossible  to  find 
Before  the  world  itself  shall  end !  " 

Elsie,  the  lovely  daughter  of  a  peasant  in  the  Oden- 
wald  learns  of  the  Prince's  need,  and  declares  she  will 
give  her  blood  for  his  cure.  In  her  chamber  by  night, 
her  self-surrendering  prayer  goes  up : 

** « If  my  feeble  prayer  can  reach  thee, 
O  my  Saviour,  I  beseech  thee, 
Even  as  thou  hast  died  for  me, 
More  sincerely 

Let  me  follow  where  thou  leadest, 
Let  me,  bleeding  as  thou  bleedest. 


ELSIE'S  OFFERING.  II9 

Die,  if  dying  I  may  give 
Life  to  one  who  asks  to  live. 
And  more  nearly, 
Dying  thus,  resemble  thee !' " 

Her  father,  Gottlieb,  consents  to  her  life-surrender, 
saying  to  the  Prince  : 

"  'As  Abraham  offered,  long  ago, 
His  son  unto  the  Lord,  and  even 
The  Everlasting  Father  in  heaven 
Gave  his,  as  a  lamb  unto  the  slaughter, 
So  do  I  offer  up  my  daughter,'  " 

And  Elsie  adds : 

« *  My  life  is  little, 
Only  a  cup  of  water, 
But  pure  and  limpid. 
Take  it,  O  Prince ! 
Let  it  refresh  you. 
Let  it  restore  you. 
It  is  given  willingly 
It  is  given  freely ; 
May  God  bless  the  gift !'" 

The  proffered  sacrifice  is  interfered  with  before  its  con- 
summation ;  but  its  purposed  method  shows  the  esti- 
mate which  was  put,  from  of  old,  on  voluntarily  yielded 
life  for  life. 

There  is  said  to  be  an  Eastern  legend  somewhat 
like  the  story  of  Amys  and  Amylion ;  with  a  touch 
of  the  ancient  Egyptian  and  Mexican  legends  already 
cited.      "The  Arabian  chronicler  speaks  of  a  king. 


I20  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

who,  having  lost  a  faithful  servant  by  his  transforma- 
tion into  stone,  is  told  that  he  can  call  his  friend  back 
to  life,  if  he  is  willing  to  behead  his  two  children,  and 
to  sprinkle  the  ossified  figure  with  their  blood.  He 
makes  up  his  mind  to  the  sacrifice ;  but  as  he  ap- 
proaches the  children  with  his  drawn  sword,  the  will 
is  accepted  by  heaven  for  the  deed,  and  he  suddenly 
sees  the  stone  restored  to  animation."  ^  This  story,  in 
substance,  (only  with  the  slaying  and  the  resuscitating 
of  the  children,  as  in  the  English  romance,)  appears  in 
Grimm's  folk-lore  tales,  under  the  title  of  "  Faithful 
John";^  but  whether  its  origin  was  in  the  East  or  in 
the  North,  or  in  both  quarters,  is  not  apparent.  Its 
reappearance  East,  North,  and  West,  is  all  the  more 
noteworthy. 

In  the  romances  of  King  Arthur  and  his  knights, 
there  is  a  story  of  a  maiden  daughter  of  King  Pelli- 
nore,  a  sister  of  Sir  Percivale,  who  befriends  the  noble 
Sir  Galahad,  and  then  accompanies  him  and  his  com- 
panions on  their  way  to  the  castle  of  Carteloise,  and 
beyond,  in  their  search  for  the  Holy  Grail. 

"And  again  they  went  on  to  another  castle,  from 
which  came  a  band  of  knights,  who  told  them  of  the 
custom  of  the  place,  that  every  maiden  who  passed  by 

1  Citation  from  "  Saturday  Review,"  for  Feb.  14,  1857,  in  Notes  and 

Queries^  supra. 

*  See  Grimm's  Household  Tales,  I.,  23-30. 


ANOTHER  ELSIE.  121 

must  yield  a  dish  full  of  her  blood.  '  That  shall  she 
not  do/  said  Galahad,  '  while  I  live ' ;  and  fierce  was 
the  struggle  that  followed ;  and  the  sword  of  Galahad, 
which  was  the  sword  of  King  David,  smote  them  down 
on  every  side,  until  those  who  remained  alive  craved 
peace,  and  bade  Galahad  and  his  fellows  come  into  the 
castle  for  the  night;  'and  on  the  morn,'  they  said,  'we 
dare  say  ye  will  be  of  one  accord  with  us,  when  ye 
know  the  reason  for  our  custom  ? '  So  awhile  they 
rested,  and  the  knights  told  them  that  in  the  castle 
there  lay  a  lady  sick  to  death,  who  might  never  gain 
back  her  life,  until  she  should  be  anointed  with  the 
blood  of  a  pure  maiden  who  was  a  king's  daughter. 
Then  said  Percivale's  sister,  '  I  will  yield  it,  and  so  shall 
I  get  health  to  my  soul,  and  there  shall  be  no  battle' 
on  the  morn.'  And  even  so  was  it  done ;  but  the  blood 
which  she  gave  was  so  much  that  she  might  not  live ; 
and  as  her  strength  passed  away,  she  said  to  Percivale, 
*  I  die,  brother,  for  the  healing  of  this  lady.'  .  .  .  Thus 
was  the  lady  of  the  castle  healed ;  and  the  gentle  mai- 
den, [Percivale's  sister,]     .     .     .     died."^ 

In  the  old  Scandinavian  legends,  there  are  indica- 
tions of  the  traditional  belief  in  the  power  of  trans- 
ferred life  through  a  bath  of  blood.  Siegfried,  or  Sig- 
urd, a  descendant  of  Odin,  slew  Fafner,  a  dragon-shaped 
guardian  of  ill-gotten  treasure.     In  the  hot  blood  of 

*  Cox  and  Jones's  Popular  Romances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  85-87. 


122  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

that  dragon,  he  bathed  himself,  and  so  took  on,  as  it 
were,  an  outer  covering  of  new  life,  rendering  himself 
sword-proof,  save  at  a  single  point  where  a  leaf  of  the 
linden-tree  fell  between  his  shoulders,  and  shielded  the 
flesh  from  the  life-imparting  blood.^  On  this  incident 
it  is,  that  the  main  tragedy  in  the  Nibelungen  Lied 
pivots;  where  Siegfried's  wife,  Kriemhild,  tells  the 
treacherous  Hagan  of  her  husband's  one  vulnerable 
point : 

"  Said  she,  My  husband  's  daring,  and  thereto  stout  of  limb  ; 
Of  old,  when  on  the  mountain  he  slew  the  dragon  grim, 
In  its  blood  he  bathed  him,  and  thence  no  more  can  feel, 
In  his  charmed  person,  the  deadly  dint  of  steel. 


"  As  from  the  dragon's  death-wounds  gushed  out  the  crimson  gore, 
With  the  smoking  torrent,  the  warrior  washed  him  o'er. 
A  leaf  then  'twixt  his  shoulders  fell  from  the  linden  bough ; 
There,  only,  steel  can  harm  him ;  for  that  I  tremble  now."  "^ 

Even  among  the  blood-reverencing  Brahmans  of 
India,  there  are  traces  of  this  idea,  that  life  is  to  be 
guarded  by  the  outpoured  blood  of  others.  In  the 
famous  old  work,  "  Kalila  wa-Dimna,"  there  is  the 
story  of  .a  king,  named  Beladh,  who  had  a  vision  in 
the  night,  which  so  troubled  him  that  he  sought  coun- 
sel of  the  Brahmans,  Their  advice  was,  that  he 
should  sacrifice  his  favorite  wife,  his  best  loved  son, 

*  Cox  and  Jones's  Romances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  292. 
2  Lettsom's  Nibel.  Lied,  p.  158. 


BLOOD   CURES  IN  INDIA  AND  CHINA.    1 23 

his  nephew,  and  his  dearest  friend,  in  conjunction 
with  other  valued  offerings  to  the  gods.  "  It  will  be 
necessary  for  you,  O  King,"  they  said,  "when  you 
have  put  to  death  the  persons  we  have  named  to  you, 
to  fill  a  cauldron  with  their  blood,  and  sit  upon  it; 
and  when  you  get  up  from  the  cauldron,  we,  the 
Brahmans,  assembled  from  the  four  quarters  of  the 
kingdom,  will  walk  around  you,  and  pronounce  our 
incantations  over  you,  and  we  will  spit  upon  you,  and 
wipe  off  from  you  the  blood,  and  will  wash  you  in 
water  and  sweet-oil,  and  then  you  may  return  to  the 
palace,  trusting  in  the  protection  of  heaven  against  the 
danger  which  threatens  you."  ^ 

Here,  the  king's  offering  to  the  gods,  was  to  be  of 
that  which  was  dearest  to  him ;  and  the  bath  of  blood 
was  to  prove  to  him  a  cover  of  life.  King  Beladh 
wisely  said,  that  if  that  were  the  price  of  his  safety  he 
was  ready  to  die.  He  would  not  prolong  his  life  at 
such  a  cost.  But  the  story  shows  the  primitive 
estimate  of  the  life-giving  power  of  blood,  among  the 
Hindoos. 

In  China,  also,  blood  has  its  place  as  a  life-giving 
agency.     A  Chinese  woman,  on  the  Kit-ie  River,  tells  ' 
a  missionary,  of  her   occasional   seasons   of  frenzy, 
under  the  control  of  spirits,  and  of  her  ministry  of 
blood,  at  such  seasons,  for  the  cure  of  disease.    "  Every 

'^  Kalila  wa-DimnUy  p.  3 1 5-3 19. 


124  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

year  when  there  is  to  be  a  pestilence,  or  when  cholera 
is  to  prevail,  she  goes  into  this  frenzy,  and  cuts  her 
tongue  with  a  knife,  letting  some  drops  of  her  blood 
fall  into  a  hogshead  of  water.  This  [homoeopathically- 
treated]  water,  the  people  drink  as  a  specific  against 
contagion."  Its  sacred  blood  is  counted  a  shield  of  life. 
"  With  the  rest  of  the  blood,  she  writes  charms,  which 
the  people  paste  [as  words  of  life]  upon  their  door- 
posts, or  wear  upon  their  persons,  as  preventives  of 
evil."^ 

Receiving  new  blood  as  a  means  of  receiving  new 
life,  seems  to  have  been  sought  interchangeably,  in 
olden  time,  in  various  diseases,  by  blood  lavations,  by 
blood  drinking,  and  by  blood  transfusion.  It  is 
recorded  that,  in  1483,  King  Louis  XL,  of  France, 
struggled  for  life  by  drinking  the  blood  of  young 
children,  as  a  means  of  his  revivifying.  "  Every  day 
he  grew  worse,"  it  is  said ;  "  and  the  medicines  profited 
him  nothing,  though  of  a  strange  character ;  for  he 
vehemently  hoped  to  recover  by  the  human  blood 
which  he  took  and  swallowed  from  certain  children."  ^ 
Again  there  is  a  disputed  claim,  that,  in  1492,  a  Jewish 
physician  endeavored  to  save  the  life  of  Pope  Innocent 
VIIL,  by  giving  him  in  transfusion  the  blood  of  three 

*  Fielde's  Pagoda  Shadows^  p.  88. 
*  Croniques  de  France ^  15 16,  feuillet  c  c  i  j,  cited  from  Soane,  in  Notes 
and  Queries,  supra. 


BLOOD  IN  ZULU  LAND.  125 

young  men  successively.  The  Pope  was  not  recov- 
ered, but  the  three  young  men  lost  their  lives  in  the 
experiment.'  Yet  blood  transfusion  as  a  means  of 
new  life  to  the  dying  was  not  always  a  failure,  even  in 
former  centuries ;  for  the  record  stands,  that  "  at 
Frankfort,  on  the  Oder,  the  surgeons  Balthazar,  Kauf- 
man, and  Purmann,  healed  a  leper,  in  1683,  bypassing 
the  blood  of  a  lamb  into  his  veins."  ^ 

Even  to-day,  in  South  Africa, "  when  the  Zulu  King 
is  sick,  his  immediate  personal  attendants,  or  valets^ 
are  obliged  to  allow  themselves  to  be  wounded ;  that 
a  portion  of  their  blood  may  be  introduced  into  the 
king's  circulation,  and  a  portion  of  his  into  theirs."  ^ 
In  this  plan,  the  idea  seems  to  be,  that  health  may 
have  power  over  disease,  and  that  death  may  be 
swallowed  up  in  life,  by  equalizing  the  blood  of  the 
one  who  is  in  danger,  and  of  the  many  who  are  in 
strength  and  safety.  Moreover  among  the  Kafirs 
those  who  are  still  in  health  are  sometimes  "  washed 
in  blood  to  protect  them  against  wounds  " ;  ^  as  if  an 
outer  covering  of  life  could  be  put  on,  for  the  protec- 

1  Roussel's  Trans,  of  Bloody  p.  6.  A  different  version  of  this  story 
is  given  in  Bruy's  Histoire  des  Fapes,  IV.,  278 ;  but  the  other  version  is 
supported  by  two  independent  sources,  in  Infessurce  Diarium^  and 
Burchardi  Diarium.  See  Notes  and  Queries^  5th  Series,  III.,  496, 
and  IV.,  38 ;  also  Hare's  Walks  in  Rome^  p.  590. 

2  Diet.  Mtd.  et  Chirurg.  Frat.y  Art.  "  Transfusion." 

«  Shooter's  Kafirs  of  Natal,  p.  1 17.  *  Ibid.,  p.  216. 

II* 


126  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

tion  of  their  life  within.  Transfused  human  blood  is 
also  said  to  be  a  common  prescription  of  the  medicine- 
men of  Tasmania,  for  the  cure  of  disease.^ 

And  so  it  would  appear,  that,  whatever  may  be  its 
basis  in  physiological  science,  the  opinion  has  pre- 
vailed, widely  and  always,  that  there  is  a  vivifying 
power  in  transferred  blood ;  and  that  blood  not  only 
represents  but  carries  life. 

3.   A   NEW   NATURE  THROUGH   NEW    BLOOD. 

It  was  a  primeval  idea,  of  universal  sway,  that  the 
/  taking  in  of  another's  blood  was  the  acquiring  of 
another's  life,  with  all  that  was  best  in  that  other's 
nature.  It  was  not  merely  that  the  taking  away 
of  blood  was  the  taking  away  of  life ;  but  that  the 
taking  in  of  blood  was  the  taking  in  of  life,  and  of  all 
that  that  life  represented.  Here,  again,  the  heart,  as 
the  fountain  of  blood,  and  so,  as  the  centre  and  source 
of  life,  was  preeminently  the  agency  of  transfer,  in  the 
acquiring  of  a  new  nature. 

Herodotus  tells  us  of  this  idea  in  the  far  East,  twenty- 
four  centuries  ago.  When  a  Scythian,  he  said,  killed 
his  first  man  in  open  warfare,  he  drank  in  his  blood, 
as  a  means  of  absorbing  his  fairly  acquired  life ;  and 
the  heads  of  as  many  as  he  slew,  the  Scythian  carried 

*  Bonwick's  Daily  Life  and  Origin  of  Tasmanians,  p.  89 ;  cited  in 
Spencer's  Des.  Soc,  III.,  43. 


A  JESUIT  MAR  TYR.  I  2  7 

in  triumph  to  the  king;^  as  the  American  Indian 
bears  away  the  scalps  of  his  slain,  to-day.  Modern 
historians,  indeed,  show  us  other  resemblances  than 
this,  between  the  aboriginal  American  and  the  an- 
cient Scythian. 

The  Jesuit  founder  of  the  Huron  Mission  to  the 
American  Indians,  "  its  truest  hero,  and  its  greatest 
martyr,"  was  Jean  de  Brebeuf  After  a  heroic  life 
among  a  savage  people,  he  was  subjected  to  frightful 
torture,  and  to  the  cruelest  death.  His  character  had 
won  the  admiration  of  those  who  felt  that  duty  to  their 
gods  demanded  his  martyrdom  ;  and  his  bearing  un- 
der torture  exalted  him  in  their  esteem,  as  heroic  be- 
yond compare.  "  He  came  of  a  noble  race,"  says 
Parkman,^ — "the  same  [race],  it  is  said,  from  which 
sprang  the  English  Earls  of  Arundel ;  but  never  had 
the  mailed  barons  of  his  line  confronted  a  fate  so  ap- 
palling, with  so  prodigious  a  constancy.  To  the  last 
he  refused  to  flinch,  and  '  his  death  was  an  astonish- 
ment to  his  murderers.'  "  "  We  saw  no  part  of  his 
body,"  wrote  an  eye  witness,^  "from  head  to  foot, 
which  was  not  burned  [while  he  was  yet  living],  even 
to  his  eyes,  in  the  sockets  of  which  these  wretches 
had  placed  live  coals."  Such  manhood  as  he  dis- 
played under  these  tortures,  the  Indians  could  appre- 

^Hisi.,  IV.,  64.  ^Jesuits  in  No.  A?n.  in  ijth  Cent.  p.  389  f. 

^  Ragueneau ;  cited  by  Parkman. 


128  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

ciate.  Such  courage  and  constancy  as  his,  they  longed 
to  possess  for  themselves.  When,  therefore,  they  per- 
ceived that  the  brave  and  faithful  man  of  God  was 
finally  sinking  into  death,  they  sprang  toward  him, 
scalped  him,  "laid  open  his  breast,  and  came  in  a 
crowd  to  drink  the  blood  of  so  valiant  an  enemy ; 
thinking  to  imbibe  with  it  some  portion  of  his  cour- 
age. A  chief  then  tore  out  his  heart,  and  devoured  it." 
Not  unlike  this  has  been  a  common  practice  among 
the  American  Indians,  in  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of 
war.  "If  the  victim  had  shown  courage,"  again  says 
Parkman,  concerning  the  Hurons,  "  the  heart  was  first 
roaste^,  cut  into  small  pieces,  and  given  to  the  young 
men  and  boys,  who  devoured  it,  to  increase  their  own 
courage."  ^  So,  similarly,  with  the  Iroquois.^  And 
Burton  says  of  the  Dakotas :  ^  "  They  are  not  canni- 
bals, except  when  a  warrior,  after  slaying  a  foe,  eats, 
porcupine-like,  the  heart  or  liver,  with  the  idea  of  in- 
creasing his  own  courage."  Schomburgk,  writing 
concerning  the  natives  of  British  Guiana,  says :  "  In 
order  to  increase  their  courage,  and  [so  their]  con- 
tempt of  death,  the  Caribs  were  wont  to  cut  out  the 
heart  of  a  slain  enemy,  dry  it  on  the  fire,  powder  it, 
and  mix  the  powder  in  their  drink."  ^ 

"^Jesuits  in  No.  Am.,  Introduction,  p.  xxxix.  '  Ibid.y  p.  250. 

»  City  of  the  Saints,  p.  1 1 7.     See  also  Appendix. 

^Reisen  in  Brit.  Guian.,  II.,  430;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc.  VI.,  36. 


ABSORBING  AN  ENEMY'S  LIFE.  1 29 

The  native  Australians  find,  it  is  said,  an  inducement 
to  bloodshed,  in  their  belief — like  that  of  the  ancient 
Scythians — that  the  life,  or  the  spirit,  of  the  first  man 
whom  one  slays,  enters  into  the  life  of  the  slayer,  and 
remains  as  his  helpful  possession  thereafter.^  The 
Ashantee  fetishmen,  of  West  Africa,  apparently  acting 
on  a  kindred  thought,  make  a  mixture  of  the  hearts 
of  enemies,  mingled  with  blood  and  consecrated  herbs, 
for  the  vivifying  of  the  conquerors.  "All  who  have 
never  before  killed  an  enemy  eat  of  the  preparation ; 
it  being  believed  that  if  they  did  not,  their  energy  would 
be  secretly  wasted  by  the  haunting  spirits  of  their  de- 
ceased foes."  ^  The  underlying  motive  of  the  bloody 
"  head-hunttng  "  in  Borneo,  is  the  Dayak  belief,  that  the 
spirits  of  those  whose  heads  are  taken  are  to  be  subject 
to  him,  who  does  the  decapitating.  The  heads  are  pri- 
marily simply  the  proof — like  the  Indian's  scalps — that 
their  owner  has  so  many  lives  absorbed  in  his  own.^ . 

A  keen  observer  of  Fellaheen  life  in  Palestine  has 
reported :  ^  "  There  is  an  ugly  expression  used  among 

1  Trans,  of  Ethn.  Soc.  new  series,  III.,  240,  cited  in  Spencer's  Des. 
Soc,  III.,  36. 

2  Beecham's  Ashantee  and  the  Gold  Coast^  p.  211 ;  cited  in  Spencer's 
Des  Soc,  IV.,  33. 

^  See  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  I.,  459 ;  also  Bock's  Head  Hunters 
of  Borneo,  passim. 

*  Mrs.  Finn's  "  Fellaheen  of  Palestine "  in  Surv.  of  West.  Pal. 
"  Special  Papei-s,"  p.  360. 


130  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  fellaheen  of  South  Palestine,  in  speaking  of  an 
enemy  slain  in  war — ' Dhabbahhtho  bisndny '  ('  I  slew 
him  with  my  teeth ')  ^ ;  and  it  is  said  that  there  have 
been  instances  of  killing  in  battle  in  this  fashion  by 
biting  at  the  throat.  In  the  Nablous  district  (Samaria), 
where  the  people  are  much  more  ferocious,  the  expres- 
sion is,  '  I  have  drunk  his  blood ' ;  but  that  is  under- 
stood figuratively." 

An  ancient  Greek  version  of  the  story  of  Jason, 
telling  of  that  hero's  treatment  of  the  body  of  Apsyr- 
tos — whom  he  had  slain — says :  "  Thrice  he  tasted  the 
blood,  thrice  [he]  spat  it  out  between  his  teeth ;  "  and  a 
modern  collator  informs  us,  that  the  scholiast  here  finds 
"  the  description  of  an  archaic  custom,  popular  among 
murderers."  ^  This  certainly  corresponds  with  the  Sem- 
itic phrases  lingering  among  the  Fellaheen  of  Palestine. 

In  the  old  German  epic,  the  Nibelungen  Lied,  it  is 
told  of  the  brave  Burgundians,  when  they  were  fight- 
ing desperately  in  the  burning  hall  of  the  Huns,  that 
they  were  given  new  courage  for  the  hopeless  conflict, 
by  drinking  the  blood  of  their  fallen  comrades  ;  which 
"  quenched  their  thirst,  and  made  them  fierce."  ^    With 

^  This  is  Mrs.  Finn's  rendering  of  it ;  but  it  should  be  "  I  sacrificed 
him  with  my  teeth."  The  Arabic  word  is  obviously  dhabaha  (^>Jt>), 
identical  with  the  Hebrew  zabkakh  (HDI)  "  to  sacrifice." 

2  Lang's  Custom  and  Mythy  p.  95  f. ;  also  Grimm's  Household  Tales, 
p.  Ixviii. 

'Cox  and  Jones's  Fop.  Rom.  of  Mid.  Ages,  p.  310. 


VICARIOUS  EXECUTION.  131 

their  added  life,  from  the  added  blood  of  heroes,  they 
battled  as  never  before. 

"  It  strung  again  their  sinews,  and  failing  strength  renewed. 
This,  in  her  lover's  person,  many  a  fair  lady  rued."  ^ 

Is  there  not,  indeed,  a  trace  of  the  primitive  custom 
— thus  recognized  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe — of 
absorbing  the  life  of  a  slain  one  by  drinking  in  his 
blood,  in  our  common  phrase,  "  blood-thirstiness," 
as  descriptive  of  a  life-seeker  ?  That  phrase  certainly 
gains  added  force  and  appropriateness,  in  the  light  of 
this  universal  idea. 

It  is  evident  that  the  wide-spread  popular  belief  in 
nature-absorption  through  blood-appropriation,  has 
included  the  idea  of  a  tribal  absorption  of  new  life  in 
vicarious  blood.  Alcedo,  a  Spanish-American  writer, 
has  illustrated  this  in  his  description  of  the  native 
Araucanians  of  South  America.  When  they  have 
triumphed  in  war,  they  select  a  representative  prisoner 
for  official  and  vicarious  execution.  After  due  prepar- 
ation, they  "  give  him  a  handful  of  small  sticks  and  a 
sharp  stake,  with  which  they  oblige  him  to  dig  a  hole 
in  the  ground ;  and  in  this  they  order  him  to  cast  the 
sticks  one  by  one,  repeating  the  names  of  the  principal 
warriors  of  his  country,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
surrounding  soldiers  load  these  abhorred  names  with 
the  bitterest  execrations.     He  is  then  ordered  to  cover 

2  Lettsom's  NibeL  Lied^  p.  373. 


132  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  hole,  as  if  to  bury  therein  the  reputation  and  valor 
of  their  enemies,  whom  he  has  named.  After  this 
ceremony,  the  toqui,  or  one  of  his  bravest  companions 
to  whom  he  relinquishes  the  honor  of  the  execution, 
dashes  out  the  brains  of  the  prisoner  with  a  club. 
The  heart  is  immediately  taken  out,  and  presented 
palpitating  to  the  general,  who  sucks  a  little  of  the 
bloody  and  passes  it  to  his  officersy  who  repeat  in  suc- 
cession the  same  ceremony."  ^  And  in  this  way  the  life 
of  the  conquered  tribe  passes,  symbolically,  into  the 
tribal  life  of  the  conquerors. 

Burckhardt  was  so  surprised  at  a  trace  of  this  idea 
in  Nubia,  that  he  could  hardly  credit  the  information 
concerning  it;  "although  several  persons  asserted  it 
to  be  a  fact,"  he  says ;  "  and  he  heard  no  one  contra- 
dict it."  ^  As  he  learned  it:  "Among  the  Hallenga, 
who  draw  their  origin  from  Abyssinia,  a  horrible  cus- 
tom is  said  to  attend  the  revenge  of  blood.  When 
the  slayer  has  been  seized  by  the  relatives  of  the  de- 
ceased, a  family  feast  is  proclaimed,  at  which  the  mur- 
derer is  brought  into  the  midst  of  them,  bound  upon 
an  angareyg ;  and  while  his  throat  is  slowly  cut  with 
a  razor,  the  blood  is  caught  in  a  bowl,  and  handed 
round  amongst  the  guests ;    every  one  of  whom  is 

1  Thompson's  Alcedd's  Geog.  and  Hist.  Diet,  of  America,  I.,  408 ; 
cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc,  VI.,  19. 

'  Travels  in  Nubia,  p.  356. 


LOST  BLOOD  RESTORED,  1 33 

bound  to  drink  of  it,  at  the  moment  the  victim  breathes 
his  last."  The  forfeited  life  of  the  murderer  here  seems 
to  be  surrendered  to,  and  formally  appropriated  by, 
the  family,  or  clan,  which  he  had,  to  the  same  extent, 
depleted  of  character  and  life. 

A  practice  not  unlike  this  is  reported  of  the  Austra- 
lians, in  their  avenging  the  blood  of  a  murdered  per- 
son. They  devour  their  victims ;  who  are  selected 
from  the  tribe  of  the  murderer,  although  they  may  be 
personally,  innocent  of  the  murder.  The  tribe  de- 
pleted by  the  murder,  replaces  its  loss  by  blood — which 
is  life — from  the  tribe  of  the  murderer.  Indeed,  "  when 
any  one  of  a  tribe  [in  New  South  Wales]  dies  a  nat- 
ural death,  it  is  usual  to  avenge  [or  to  cancel]  the  loss 
of  the  deceased  by  taking  blood  from  one  or  other  of 
his  friends."^  In  this  way,  the  very  Hfe  and  being  of 
those  whose  blood  is  taken,  go  to  restore  to  the  be- 
reaved ones  the  loss  that  death  has  brought  to  them. 

Strange  as  this  idea  may  seem  to  us,  its  root-thought, 
as  a  fact,  is  still  an  open  question  in  the  realm  of  phy- 
siological science.  The  claim  is  positive,  in  medical 
works,  that  insanity  has  been  cured  by  the  transfusion 
of  a  sane  man's  blood  ;^  that  a  normal  mind  has  been 

*  Trans,  of  Ethn.  Soc.  IL,  246,  and  Angas's  Austr.  and  New  Zeal.  I., 
73,  227,  462,  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc.  III.,  26. 

2  See  Diet.  Mid.  et  Chir.  Prat.  Art.  «  Transfusion  "  ;  also  Roussel's 
Transf.  of  Blood,  pp.  78-88. 


134  T^HE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

restored,  through  a  normal  life  gained  in  new  blood. 
Moreover,  the  question,  how  far  the  nature,  or  the  char- 
acteristics, of  an  organism,  are  affected,  in  blood  trans- 
fusion, by  the  nature,  or  the  characteristics,  of  the 
donor  of  the  transfused  blood,  is  by  no  means  a  set- 
tled one  among  scientists.  Referring  to  a  series  of 
questions  in  this  line,  propounded  by  Robert  Boyle, 
more  than  two  centuries  ago,  Roussel  has  said,  within 
the  past  decade :  "  No  one  has  been  able  to  give  any 
positive  answers  to  them,  based  upon  well-conducted 
operations";  and,  " they  still  await  solution  in  1877, 
as  in  1667."^ 

4.    LIFE   FROM    ANY    BLOOD,   AND   BY   A   TOUCH. 

Because  blood  is  life,  all  blood,  and  any  blood,  has 
been  looked  upon  as  a  vehicle  of  transferred  life.  And 
because  blood  is  life,  and  the  heart  is  a  fountain  of 
blood,  and  so  is  a  fountain  of  life, — a  touch  of  blood, 
or,  again,  the  minutest  portion  of  a  vital  and  vivifying 
heart,  has  been  counted  capable  of  transferring  life, 
with  all  that  life  includes  and  carries ;  just  as  the  merest 
cutting  of  a  vine,  or  the  tiniest  seed  of  the  mightiest 
tree,  will  suffice  as  the  germ  of  that  vine  or  that  tree, 
in  a  new  planting.  The  blood,  or  the  heart,  of  the 
lower  animals,  has  been  deemed  the  vehicle  of  life 
and  strength,  in  its  transference ;    and  a  touch  from 

*  Transf.  of  Bloody  p.  19. 


THE  COURAGE  OF  AN  OX.  1 35 

either  has  been  counted  potent  in  re-vivifying  and  in 
improving  the  receiving  organism. 

Thus,  for  example,  Stanley,  in  the  interior  of  Africa, 
having  received  "  a  fine,  fat  ox  as  a  peace-offering," 
from  "  the  great  magic  doctor  of  Vinyata,"  when  mak- 
ing a  covenant  of  blood  with  him,^  was  requested  to 
return  the  heart  of  the  ox  to  the  donor ;  and  he  ac- 
ceded to  this  request.  After  this,  Stanley's  party  was 
several  times  assailed  by  the  Wanyaturu,  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Vinyata.  Thereupon  his  ally  Mgongo 
Tembo  explained,  says  Stanley :  "  That  we  ought  not 
to  have  bestowed  the  heart  of  the  presented  ox  upon 
the  magic  doctor  of  Vinyata ;  as  by  the  loss  of  that 
diffuser  of  blood,  the  Wanyaturu  believed  we  had  left 
our  own  bodies  weakened,  and  would  be  an  easy  prey 
to  them."  2 

Another  modern  traveler  in  Equatorial  Africa  finds 
fresh  bullock's  blood  counted  a  means  of  manhood. 
While  the  young  Masai  man  is  passing  his  novitiate 
into  warrior  life,  he  seeks  new  strength  by  taking  in 
new  blood.  Having  employed  medical  means  to  rid 
his  system  of  the  remains  of  all  other  diet,  says 
Thompson,  the  novice  went  to  a  lonely  place  with  a 
single  attendant ;  they  taking  with  them  a  living  bul- 
lock. There  "  they  killed  the  bullock,  either  with  a 
blow  from  a  rungu,  or  by  stabbing  it  in  the  back  of 

1  See  page  20,  supra.  *  Thro.  Dark  Cont..,  I.,  123-131. 


136  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

the  neck.  They  then  opened  a  vein  and  drank  the 
blood  fresh  from  the  animal."  After  this,  the  young 
man  gorged  himself  with  the  bullock's  flesh.^  And 
whenever  the  Masai  warriors  "  go  off  on  war-raids  they 
also  contrive  to  eat  a  bullock  [after  this  fashion],  by 
way  of  getting  up  their  courage."^ 

Again,  it  is  said,  that  Arab  women  in  North  Africa 
give  their  male  children  a  piece  of  the  lion's  heart  to 
eat,  to  make  them  courageous.^  And  an  English 
traveler  in  South  Africa^  describing  the  death  of  a  lion 
shot  by  his  party,  says :  "  Scarcely  was  the  breath  out 
of  his  body  than  the  Caffres  rushed  up,  and  each  took 
a  mouthful  of  the  blood  that  was  trickling  from  the 
numerous  wounds ;  as  they  believe  that  it  is  a  specific 
which  imparts  strength  and  courage  to  those  who  par- 
take of  it." 

That  the  transference  of  life,  with  all  that  life  car- 
ries, can  be  made  by  the  simplest  blood-anointing,  as 
surely  as  by  blood  absorption,  is  strikingly  illustrated 
by  a  custom  still  observed  among  the  Hill  Tribes  of 
India.  The  Bheels,  are  a  brave  and  warlike  race  of 
mountaineers,  of  Hindostan.  They  claim  to  have  been, 
formerly,  the  rulers  of  all  their  region ;  but,  whether 
by  defeat  in  war,  or  by  voluntary  concession,  to  have 

1  Thompson's  Thro.  Masai  Land,  p.  430.  *  Ibid.,  p.  452. 

^  Shooter's  Kafirs  of  Natal,  notes,  p.  399. 

*  H.  A.  L.,  in  Sport  in  Many  Lands, 


THE  ROYAL  BLOOD.  137 

yielded  their  power  to  other  peoples — whom  they  now 
authorize  to  rule  in  their  old  domain.  "  The  extraor- 
dinary custom,  common  to  almost  all  the  countries  [of 
India]  that  have  been  mentioned,"  says  Sir  J.  Malcolm,^ 
"of  the  tika,  or  mark  that  is  put  upon  the  forehead  of 
the  Rajput  prince,  or  chief,  when  he  succeeds  to 
power,  being  moistened  with  blood  taken  from  the  toe 
or  thumb  of  a  Bhill,  may  be  received  as  one  among 
many  proofs  of  their  having  been  formerly  in  posses- 
sion of  the  principalities,  where  this  usage  prevails. 

.  .  .  The  right  of  giving  the  blood  for  this  cere- 
mony, is  claimed  by  particular  families  ;  and  the  be- 
lief, that  the  individual,  from  whose  veins  it  is  supplied, 
never  lives  beyond  a  twelvemonth,  in  no  degree  oper- 
ates to  repress  the  zeal  of  the  Bhills  to  perpetuate  an 
usage,  which  the  Rajput  princes  are,  without  excep- 
tion, desirous  should  cease."  The  Bheels  claim  that 
the  right  to  rule  is  vested  in  their  race ;  but  they  trans- 
fer that  right  to  the  Rajpoot  by  a  transfer  of  blood — 
which  is  a  transfer  of  life  and  of  nature.  Thus  the 
Bheels  continue  to  rule — in  the  person  of  those  who 
have  been  vivified  by  their  blood. 

So,  again,  among  the  ancient  Caribs,  of  South 
America,  " '  as  soon  as  a  male  child  was  brought  into 
the  world,  he  was  sprinkled  with  some  drops  of  his 

*  See  Trans.  Royal  Asiat.  Soc,  I.,  69 ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc, 
v.,  26  f. 

12* 


138  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

father's  blood  ' ;  the  father  '  fondly  believing,  that  the 
same  degree  of  courage  which  he  had  himself  dis- 
played, was  by  these  means  transmitted  to  his  son.'  "^ 
Here  it  is  evident,  that  the  voluntary  transfusion  of 
blood  is  deemed  more  potent  to  the  strengthening  of 
personal  character,  than  is  the  transmission  of  blood 
by  natural  descent. 

In  South  Africa,  among  the  Amampondo,  one  of 
the  Kaffir  tribes,  it  is  customary  for  the  chief,  on  his 
accession  to  authority,  "  to  be  washed  in  the  blood  of 
a  near  relative,  generally  a  brother,  who  is  put  to 
death  on  the  occasion,  and  his  skull  used  as  a  recep- 
tacle for  his  blood."  ^  In  order  to  give  more  life  and 
more  character  than  the  ordinary  possession  to  the 
newly  elevated  chieftain,  the  family  blood  is  withdrawn 
from  the  veins  of  one  having  less  need  of  it,  that  it 
may  be  absorbed  by  him  who  can  use  it  more  impos- 
ingly. 

In  the  Yoruba  country,  in  Central  Africa,  "  when  a 
beast  is  sacrificed  for  a  sick  man,  the  blood  is  sprinkled 
on  the  wall,  and  smeared  on  the  patient's  forehead, 
with  the  idea,  it  is  said,  of  thus  transferring  to  him  the 
[divinely]  accepted  victim's  life."  Life  is  life,  and 
whether  that  life  be  in  the  blood  of  one  organism  or 

*  Edwards's  Hist,  of  Brit.  West  Ind.y  I.,  47  ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des. 

Soc,  VL,  36. 

2  Shooter's  Kafirs  of  Natal,  p.  216. 


THE  SOUL  OF  POETRY.  1 39 

of  another,  of  man  or  of  an  inferior  animal,  its  trans- 
ference carries  with  it  all  that  life  includes.  That 
seems  to  be  the  thought  in  Yoruba ;  and,  as  all  life  is 
of  supernatural  origin  and  preservation,  its  transference 
can  be  by  a  touch  as  easily  as  by  any  other  method.^ 

5.    INSPIRATION   THROUGH    BLOOD. 

Because  blood,  as  life,  belongs  to,  and,  in  a  peculiar 
sense,  represents,  the  Author  of  life,  blood  has  been 
counted  a  means  of  inspiration.  The  blood  of  the 
gods,  in  myth  and  legend,  and  again  the  blood  of 
divinely  accepted  sacrifices,  human  and  animal,  in 
ancient  and  modern  religious  rituals,  has  been  relied 
on  as  the  agency  whereby  the  Author  of  life  speaks 
in  and  through  the  possessor  of  that  blood. 

The  inspiring  power  of  blood,  is  a  thought  that  runs 
all  through  the  early  Norseland  legends.  Thus,  Kvaser, 
according  to  the  Scandinavian  mythology,  was  a  being 
created  by  the  gods  with  preternatural  intelligence. 
Kvaser  traversed  the  world,  teaching  men  wisdom  ; 
but  he  was  treacherously  murdered  by  the  dwarfs 
Fjalar  and  Gala.  The  dwarfs  let  Kvaser's  blood  run 
into  two  cups  and  a  kettle.  "  The  name  of  the  kettle 
is  Odrcerer,  and  the  names  of  the  cups  are  Son  and 
Bodn.     By   mixing   up   his   blood  with  honey,  they 

*  See  Tylor's  Prim.  Cult.^  II.,  382,  referring  to  Bastian's  Psychologies 


I40  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

composed  a  drink  of  such  surpassing  excellence,  that 
whoever  partakes  of  it  acquires  the  gift  of  song."^ 
And  that  was  the  origin  of  poetry  in  the  world ;  al- 
though there  have  been  a  good  many  imitations  of  the 
real  article  since  that  day. 

So,  again,  in  the  Elder  Edda,  the  hero  Sigurd  killed 
Fafner,  at  the  instigation  of  Fafner's  brother  Regin. 
Regin  cut  out  the  heart  of  his  brother,  and  gave  it  to 
Sigurd  to  roast,  while  he  drank  the  blood  of  the  mur- 
dered one.  Touching  the  bleeding  heart  with  his 
fingers,  and  then  putting  his  fingers  into  his  mouth, 
Sigurd  found  that  he  was  now  able  to  understand  the 
voice  of  birds;  and  thenceforward  he  was  a  hero 
inspired.^  Afterwards  he  gave  his  bride,  Gudrun, 
"  to  eat  of  the  remnant  of  Fafnir's  heart ;  so  she  grew 
wise  and  great-hearted."  ^ 

Down  to  the  present  time,  there  are  those  in  the 
far  East,  and  in  the  far  West,  who  seek  inspiration  by 
blood-drinking.  All  along  the  North  Pacific  coast, 
the  shamanism  of  tjie  native  tribes  shows  itself  in  a 
craving  for  blood  as  a  means  and  as  an  accompani- 
ment of  preternatural  frenzy.  The  chief  sorcerer,  or 
medicine-man,  has  his  seasons  of  demoniacal  posses- 

*  See  Anderson's  Norse  Mythol.,  p.  247. 
^3id.,  p.  380;   Lettsom's   Nibel.  Liedy  Preface,  p.  ix. ;    Cox  and 
Jones's  Pop.  Rom.  of  Mid.  AgeSy  p.  254  f. 

*  Pop.  Rom.  of  Mid.  AgeSy  p.  260 ;  also  NiJ).  Liedy  p.  x. 


AN  INSPIRING  DRAUGHT.  141 

sion,  when  he  can  communicate  with  the  powers  of 
the  air.  At  such  times  he  is  accustomed  to  spring 
upon  the  members  of  his  tribe,  and  bite  out  from  their 
necks  or  bodies  the  bleeding  flesh,  as  a  help  to  inspi- 
ration and  debauch.  None  would  venture  to  resist 
these  blood-thirsty  assaults  ;  but  the  scars  which  result 
are  always  borne  with  pride.^ 

Another  phase  of  this  universal  idea  is  reported  by 
a  recent  traveler  in  the  Himalayan -districts  of  India; 
where,  as  he  thinks,  the  forms  of  religion  ante-date  in 
their  origin  those  of  Hindooism,  or  of  Brahmanism, 
and  "  have  descended  from  very  early  ages."  When 
a  favor  is  sought  from  a  local  divinity,  "  it  is  the  chela 
[or  primitive  seer]  who  gasps  out  the  commands  of 
the  deoty  [the  *  deity '],  as  he  [the  chela]  shivers  under 
the  divine  afflatus,  and  [under]  the  vigorous  applica- 
tion of  the  soongul,  or  iron  scourge."  But  before  the 
chela  can  have  "  the  divine  afflatus  "  he  must  drink-in 
living  blood.  Thus,  this  traveler  witnessed  an  appeal 
to  the  snake-god,  Kailung  Nag,  for  fine  weather  for 
the  sowing  of  the  crops.  The  sacrificial  sheep  was 
procured  by  the  people ;  the  ceremonies  of  wild  wor- 
ship, including  music,  dancing,  incense-burning,  and 
bodily  flagellations,  proceeded.  "At  length,  all  being 
ready,  the  head  of  the  victim  was  struck  off  with  an 

*See  Bancroft's  Native  Races,  III.,  150;  Brinton's  Myths  of  New 
Worldy  p.  274  f. ;  Jackson's  Alaska,  p.  103  f. 


142  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

axe.  The  body  was  then  lifted  up  by  several  men, 
and  the  chela,  seizing  upon  it  like  a  tiger,  drank  the 
blood  as  it  spurted  from  the  neck.  When  all  the 
blood  had  been  sucked  from  the  carcass,  it  was  thrown 
down  upon  the  ground,  amid  yells  and  shouts  of '  ir<3!z7- 
ung  Maharaj  ki  jai  I '  [*  Victory  to  the  great  king 
Kailung '].  The  dancing  was  then  renewed,  and  be- 
came more  violent,  until  after  many  contortions,  the 
chela  [now  blood-filled]  gasped  out  that  the  deota  ac- 
cepted the  sacrifice,  and  that  the  season  would  be  fa- 
vorable. This  was  received  with  renewed  shouts,  and 
the  chela  sank  down  upon  the  ground  in  a  state  of 
exhaustion."  ^ 

In  the  folk-lore  of  Scotland,  as  representing  the 
primitive  traditions  of  Western  Europe,  there  are  illus- 
trations of  the  idea  that  the  blood  of  the  gods  was 
communicated  to  earthly  organisms.  Thus,  a  scientific 
antiquarian  of  Scotland  records  in  this  line  :  "  There 
was  a  popular  saying  that  the  robin  " — the  robin  red- 
breast— "  had  a  drop  of  God's  blood  in  its  veins,  and 
that  therefore  to  kill  or  hurt  it  was  a  sin,  and  that 
some  evil  would  befall  any  one  who  did  so ;  and,  con- 
versely, any  kindness  done  to  poor  robin  would  be 
repaid  in  some  fashion.  Boys  did  not  dare  to  harry  a 
robin's  nest."     On  the  other  hand,  the  yellow-hammer 

1  Charles  F.  Oldham's  "  Native  Faiths  in  the  Himalayah,"  in  The 
Contemporary  Review  for  April,  1885. 


THE  ORDEAL  OF  TOUCH.  1 43 

and  the  swallow  were  said,  each  "  to  have  a  drop  of 
the  Devil's  blood  in  its  veins  "  ;  so  the  one  of  these 
birds — the  yellow-hammer — was  "  remorselessly  har- 
ried " ;  and  the  other — the  swallow — "  was  feared,  and 
therefore  let  alone."  ^  A  similar  legendary  fear  of  the 
swallow,  and  the  guarding  of  his  nest,  accordingly, 
exists  in  Germany  and  in  China? 

Another  indication  of  the  belief,  that  human  blood 
has  a  vital  connection  with  its  divine  source,  and  is 
under  the  peculiar  oversight  of  its  divine  Author,  is 
found  in  the  wide-spread  opinion  that  the  blood  of  a 
murdered  man  will  bear  witness  against  the  murderer, 
by  flowing  afresh  at  his  touch ;  the  living  blood  cry- 
ing out  from  the  dead  body,  by  divine  consent,  in  tes- 
timony of  crime  against  the  Author  of  life.  Ancient 
European  literature  teems  with  incidents  in  the  line  of 
this  "  ordeal  of  touch." 

Thus  it  was,  according  to  the  Nibelungen  Lied,  that 
Kriemhild  fastened  upon  Hagan  the  guilt  of  murder- 
ing her  husband  Siegfried ;  when  Hagan  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  gathered  for  the  burial  of  the  hero. 

"  Firmly  they  made  denial ;  Kriemhild  at  once  replied, 

*  Whoe'er  in  this  is  guiltless,  let  him  this  proof  abide. 
In  sight  of  all  the  people  let  him  approach  the  bier, 
And  so  to  each  beholder  shall  the  plain  truth  appear.' 

*  Napier's  Folk-Lore  of  the  West  of  Scotland,  p.  ill  f. 

2  Farrer's  Prim.  Man.  and  Cust.,  p.  276  f. 


144  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

"  It  is  a  mighty  marvel,  which  oft  e'en  now  we  spy. 
That,  when  the  blood-stain'd  murderer  comes  to  the  murder'd  nigh. 
The  wounds  break  out  a-bleeding ;  then  too  the  same  befell. 
And  thus  could  each  beholder  the  guilt  of  Hagan  tell. 
The  wounds  at  once  burst  streaming,  fast  as  they  did  before ; 
Those  who  then  sorrowed  deeply,  now  yet  lamented  more."  ^ 

Under  Christian  IL,  of  Denmark,  the  "  Nero  of  the 
North,"  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  there  was  a 
notable  illustration  of  this  confidence  in  the  power  of 
blood  to  speak  for  itself.  A  number  of  gentlemen 
being  together  in  a  tavern,  one  evening,  they  fell  to 
quarreling,  and  "  one  of  them  was  stabbed  with  a 
poniard.  Now  the  murderer  was  unknown,  by  rea- 
son of  the  number  [present]  ;  although  the  person 
stabbed  accused  a  pursuivant  of  the  king's  who  was 
one  of  the  company.  The  king,  to  find  out  the  hom- 
icide, caused  them  all  to  come  together  in  the  stove 
[the  tavern],  and,  standing  round  the  corpse,  he  com- 
manded that  they  should,  one  after  another,  lay  their 
right  hand  on  the  slain  gentleman's  naked  breast, 
swearing  that  they  had  not  killed  him.  The  gentle- 
men did  so,  and  no  sign  appeared  against  them.  The 
pursuivant  only  remained,  who,  condemned  before  in 
his  own  conscience,  went  first  of  all  and  kissed  the  dead 
man's  feet.  But,  as  soon  as  he  had  laid  his  hand  upon 
his  breast,  the  blood  gushed  forth  in  abundance,  both  out 

1  Lettsom's  Nibel.  Lied,  p.  183  ;  also  Cox  and  Jones's  Pop.  Rom.  of 
Mid.  Ages,  p.  47  f. 


THE  CRY  OF  LIFE  IN  THE  DEAD.        145 

of  his  wound  and  his  nostrils ;  so  that,  urged  by  this 
evident  accusation,  he  confessed  the  murder,  and  was  by 
the  king's  own  sentence,  immediately  beheaded."  ^ 

A  striking  example  of  the  high  repute  in  which  this 
ordeal  of  touch  was  formerly  held,  and  of  the  under- 
lying idea  on  which  its  estimate  was  based,  is  reported 
from  the  State  Trials  of  Scotland.  It  was  during  the 
trial  of  Philip  Standsfield,  in  1688,  for  the  murder  of 
his  father.  Sir  James.  The  testimony  was  explicit, 
that  when  this  son  touched  the  body,  the  blood  flowed 
afresh,  and  the  son  started  back  in  terror,  crying  out, 
"  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me !  "  wiping  off  the  blood, 
from  his  hand,  on  his  clothes.  Sir  George  M'Kenzie, 
acting  for  the  State,  at  the  inquest,  said  concerning 
this  testimony  and  its  teachings :  "  But  they,  fully 
persuaded  that  Sir  James  was  murdered  by  his  own 
son,  sent  out  [with  him]  some  surgeons  and  friends, 
who  having  raised  the  body,  did  see  it  bleed  miracu- 
lously upon  his  touching  it.  In  which,  God  Almighty 
himself  was  pleased  to  bear  a  share  in  the  testimonies 
which  we  produce :  that  Divine  Power  which  makes 
the  blood  circulate  during  life,  has  oft  times,  in  all 
nations,  opened  a  passage  to  it  after  death  upon  such 
occasions,  but  most  in  this  case."  ^ 

*  Benson's  Remarkable  Trials,  p.  94,  note. 
^Cobbett's  State  Trials,  XL,  137 1 ;  cited  in  Anecdotes  of  Omens  and 
Superstitions,  p.  47  f. 

I  '3 


146  THE  BLOOD    COVENANT, 

Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea,  in  his  erudite  work  on  Supersti- 
tion and  Force,  has  multiplied  illustrations  of  the 
ordeal  of  touch,  or  of  **  bier-right,"  all  along  the 
later  centuries.^  He  recalls  that  "  Shakspeare  intro- 
duces it,  in  King  Richard  HI.,  where  Gloster  interrupts 
the  funeral  of  Henry  VI.,.  and  Lady  Anne  exclaims : 

*  O  gentlemen  see,  see  !  dead  Henry's  wounds 
Open  their  congealed  mouths,  and  bleed  afresh.' " 

He  refers  to  the  fact  that  it  was  an  old-time  Jewish 
custom  to  ask  pardon  of  a  corpse  for  any  offences 
committed  against  the  living  man,  laying  hold  of  the 
great  toe  of  the  corpse  while  thus  asking ;  and  if  the 
asker  had  really  inflicted  any  grievous  injury  on  the 
deceased,  the  body  was  supposed  to  signify  that  fact 
by  a  copious  hemorrhage  from  the  nose.^  "  This,  it 
will  be  observed,"  he  adds,  "  is  almost  identical  with 
the  well-known  story  .which  relates  that,  when  Richard 
Coeur-de-Lion  hastened  to  the  funeral  of  his  father, 
Henry  IL,  and  met  the  procession  at  Fontevraud,  the 
blood  poured  from  the  nostrils  of  the  dead  king, 
whose  end  he  had  hastened  by  his  disobedience  and 
rebellion."  Mr.  Lea  shows  that  in  some  instances  the 
bones  of  a  murdered  man  are  said  to  have  given  out 

^Superstition  and  Force^  pp.,  315-323. 

*  Cited  from  Gamal.  ben  Pedahzur's  Book  of  Jewish  Ceremoniesy 
p.  II. 


INTER-COMMUNION  THROUGH  BLOOD.    147 

fresh  blood  when  handled  by  a  murderer  as  long  as 
twenty  years,  or  even  fifty,  after  the  murder ;  and  he 
gives  ample  evidence  that  a  belief  in  this  power  of 
blood  to  speak  for  itself  against  the  violator  of  God's 
law,  still  exists  among  the  English-speaking  people, 
and  that  it  has  manifested  itself  as  a  means  of  justice- 
seeking,  in  the  United  States,  within  a  few  years  past. 

6.    INTER-COMMUNION   THROUGH   BLOOD. 

Beyond  the  idea  of  inspiration  through  an  interflow 
of  God-representing  blood,  there  has  been  in  primitive  j 
man's  mind  (however  it  came  there)  the  thought  of  a 
possible  inter-communion  with  God  through  an  inter- 
union  with  God  by  blood.  God  is  life.  All  life  is 
from  God,  and  belongs  to  God.  Blood  is  life.  Blood, 
therefore,  as  life,  may  be  a  means  of  man's  inter-union 
with  God.  As  the  closest  and  most  sacred  of  cove- 
nants between  man  and  man ;  as,  indeed,  an  absolute 
merging  of  two  human  natures  into  one, — is  a  possi- 
bility through  an  inter-flowing  of  a  common  blood ; 
so  the  closest  and  most  sacred  of  covenants  between 
man  and  God ;  so  the  inter-union  of  the  human  nature 
with  the  divine, — has  been  looked  upon  as  a  possibil- ' 
ity,  through  the  proffer  and  acceptance  of  a  common 
life  in  a  common  blood-flow. 

Whatever  has  been  man's  view  of  sin  and  its  pun- 
ishment, and  of  his  separation  from  God  because  of 


148  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

unforgiven  sin  (I  speak  now  of  man  as  he  is  found, 
without  the  specific  teachings  of  the  Bible  on  this 
/subject),  he  has  counted  blood — his  own  blood,  in  act- 
uality or  by  substitute — a  means  of  inter-union  with 
God,  or  with  the  gods.  Blood  is  not  death,  but  life. 
The  shedding  of  blood,  Godward,  is  not  the  taking  of 
life,  but  the  giving  of  life.  The  outflowing  of  blood 
toward  God  is  an  act  of  gratitude  or  of  affection,  a 
proof  of  loving  confidence,  a  means  of  inter-union. 
This  seems  to  have  been  the  universal  primitive  con- 
ception of  the  race.  And  an  evidence  of  man's  trust 
in  the  accomplished  fact  of  his  inter-union  with  God, 
or  with  the  gods,  by  blood,  has  been  the  also  univer- 
sal practice  of  man's  inter-communion  with  God,  or 
with  the  gods,  by  his  sharing,  in  food-partaking,  of  the  " 
body  of  the  sacrificial  offering,  whose  blood  is  the 
means  of  the  divine-human  inter-union. 

Perhaps  the  most  ancient  existing  form  of  religious 
worship,  as  also  the  simplest  and  most  primitive  form, 
is  to  be  found  in  China,  in  the  state  religion,  repre- 
sented by  the  Emperor's  worship  at  the  Temple  of 
Heaven,  in  Peking.  And  in  that  worship,  the  idea 
of  the  worshiper's  inter-communion  with  God,  through 
the  body  and  blood  of  the  sacrificial  offering,  is  dis- 
closed, even  if  not  always  recognized,  by  all  the  repre- 
sentative Western  authorities  on  the  religions  of  China. 

"The  Chinese  idea  of  a  sacrifice  to  the  supreme 


A  BANQUET-SACRIFICE.  1 49 

spirit  of  Heaven  and  of  Earth  is  that  of  a  banquet. 
There  is  no  trace  of  any  other  idea,"  says  Dr.  Edkins.* 
Dr.  Legge,^  citing  this  statement,  expands  its  signifi- 
cance by  saying :  "  The  notion  of  the  whole  service 
[at  the  Temple  of  Heaven]  might  be  that  of  a  ban- 
quet ;  but  a  sacrifice  and  a  banquet  are  incompatible 
ideas."  ^  He  then  shows  that  the  Chinese  character 
tsi,  signifying  "  sacrifice,"  "  covers  a  much  wider  space 
of  meaning  than  our  term  sacrifice  [as  he  seems  to 
view  our  use  of  that  term]."  Morrison  gives  as  one 
of  the  meanings  of  tsi^  "  That  which  is  the  medium 
between,  or  brings  together,  men  and  Gods " ;  and 
Hsii  Shan  "  says,  that  tsl  is  made  up  of  two  ideo- 
grams ; — one  the  primitive  for  spiritual  beings,  and  the 
other  representing  a  right  hand  and  a  piece  of  flesh." 
Legge  adds  :  "  The  most  general  idea  symbolized  by 
it  is — an  offering  whereby  communication  and  com- 
munion with  spiritual  beings  [God,  or  the  gods]  is 
effected."* 

Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams  says,  that  "  no  religious  sys- 
tem has  been  found  among  the  Chinese  which  taught 

^  Religion  in  China,  pp.  23,  32.       ^  7%^  Religions  of  China,  p.  55. 

*  Dr.  Legge  here  seems  to  use  the  word  "sacrifice  "  in  the  light  of  a 
single  meaning  which  attaches  to  it.  There  is  surely  no  incompatibil- 
ity in  the  terms  "  banquet  "  and  "  sacrifice,"  as  we  find  their  two-fold 
idea  in  the  banquet-sacrifice  of  the  Mosaic  peace-offering  (see  Lev. 

*  The  Relig.  of  China,  Notes  to  Lect.  I.,  p.  66. 
13* 


150  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  by  the  shedding  of 
blood  " ;  and  this  he  counts  "  an  argument  in  favor  of 
their  [the  Chinese]  antiquity  "  ;,  adding  that  "  the  state 
reUgion  .  .  .  has  maintained  its  main  features 
during  the  past  three  thousand  years."  ^  WilUams 
here,  evidently,  refers  to  an  expiatory  atonement  for 
sin ;  and  Legge  has  a  similar  view  of  the  facts.^  The 
idea  of  an  approach  to  God  through  blood — ^blood  as 
a  means  of  favor,  even  if  not  blood  as  a  canceling  of 
guilt — is  obvious,  in  the  outpouring  of  blood  by  the 
Emperor  when  he  approaches  God  for  his  worship  in 
the  Temple  of  Heaven.  The  symbolic  sacrifice  in 
that  worship,  which  precedes  the  communion,  is  of  a 
whole  "  burnt  offering,  of  a  bullock,  entire  and  without 
blemish";^  and  the  blood  of  that  offering  is  rever- 
ently poured  out  into  the  earth,^  to  be  buried  there, 
according  to  the  thought  of  man  and  the  teachings  of 
God  in  all  the  ages.  It  is  even  claimed  that  as  early 
as  2697  B.  C,  it  was  the  blood  of  the  first-born  which 
must  be  poured  out  toward  God — as  a  means  of  favor 
— in  the   Emperor's  approach  for  communion   with 

*  The  Mid.  King.,  II.,  194.  See  also  Martin's  The  Chinese,  p.  258. 
2  The  Relig.  of  China,  p.  53  f.  Gray  thinks  differently  ( China,  I.,  87.) 
»  The  Mid.  King.,  I.,  76-78 ;    The  Chinese,  p.  99  ;  Relig.  in   China, 

p.  21 ;   The  Relig.  of  China,  p.  25 ;  Confucianism  and  Taouism,  p.  87. 

*  Relig.  in  China,  p.  22.     The  same  is  true  in  sacrifices  to  Confucius 
(Gray's  China,  I.,  87). 


THE  CUP  AND  MEAT  OF  BLESSING.      151 

God ;  "  a  first-born  male,"  being  offered  up  "  as  a 
whole  burnt  sacrifice,"  in  this  worship.^  Surely,  in  this 
surrender  of  the  first-born,  there  must  have  been  some 
idea  of  an  affectionate  offering,  in  the  gift  of  that  which 
was  dearest,  even  if  there  was  no  idea  of  substitution 
by  way  of  expiation ;  something  in  addition  to  the 
simple  idea  of  "a  banquet";  something  which  was  an 
essential  preliminary  to  the  banquet 

Access  to  God  being  attained  by  the  Emperor,  the 
Emperor  enjoys  communion  with  God  in  the  Temple 
of  Heaven.  It  is  after  the  outpouring  of  blood,  and 
the  offering  of  the  holocaust,  that — in  a  lull  of  the 
orchestral  music,  in  the  great  annual  sacrifice — "  a  sin- 
gle voice  is  heard,  on  the  upper  terrace  of  the  altar, 
chanting  the  words,  '  Give  the  cup  of  blessing,  and  the 
meat  of  blessing.'  In  response,  the  officer  in  charge 
of  the  cushion  advances  and  kneels,  spreading  the 
cushion.  Other  officers  present  the  cup  of  blessing 
and  the  meat  of  blessing  [which  have  already  been 
presented  Godward]  to  the  Emperor,  who  partakes  of 
the  wine  and  returns  them.  The  Emperor  then  again 
prostrates  himself,  and  knocks  his  forehead  three 
times  against  the  ground,  and  then  nine  times  more, 
to  represent  his  thankful  reception  of  the  wine  and 
meat  [in  communion]."^ 

^  Chow  /<?,  cited  by  Douglas  in  Confuc.  and  Taou.y  p.  82  f. 
^  Edkins's  Relig,  in  China,  p.  27. 


152  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

The  evidence  is  abundant,  that  the  main  idea  of  this 
primitive  and  supreme  service  in  the  religions  of  China, 
is  the  inter-communion  of  the  Emperor  with  God. 
And  there  is  no  lack  of  proof  that  in  China,  as  else- 
where all  the  world  over,  blood — as  life — is  the  means 
of  covenanting  in  an  indissoluble  inter-union ;  of 
which  inter-union,  inter-communion  is  a  result  and  a 
proof 

In  China,  as  also  in  India,^  when  the  sacrifice  of  hu- 
man beings  was  abolished,  it  was  followed  by  the  sac- 
rifice of  the  horse.  And  the  horse-sacrifice  is  still 
practised  in  some  parts  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  on  im- 
portant occasions.  A  white  horse  is  brought  to  the 
brink  of  a  stream,  or  a  lake,  and  there  sacrificed,  by 
decapitating  it,  "burying  its  head  below  low-water 
mark,  but  reserving  its  carcase  for  food!' '^  In  a  descrip- 
tion of  this  sacrifice,  in  honor  of  a  certain  goddess, 
as  witnessed  by  Archdeacon  Gray,^  it  is  said :  "  Its 
blood  was  received  in  a  large  earthenware  jar,  and  a 
portion  carried  to  the  temple  of  the  aforesaid  goddess ; 
when  all  the  villagers  rushed  tumultuously  to  secure 
a  sprinkling  of  blood  on  the  charms  which  they  had 

1  See  page  156  f.,  infra. 

2  "  The  flesh  of  the  horse  is  eaten  both  by  the  Chinese  and  the  Mon- 
golians."    (Gray's  China^  II.,  174.) 

'  See  C.  F.  Gordon  Cumming's  article  "A  Visit  to  the  Temple  of 
Heaven  at  Peking,"  in  Lond.  Quart.  Rev.,  for  July,  1885. 


BLOOD-SPRINKLING  IN  CHINA.  1 53 

already  purchased.  The  rest  of  the  blood  was  min- 
gled with  sand,"  and  taken  with  various  accessories, 
in  a  boat.  "This  boat  headed  a  long  procession  of 
richly  carved  and  gilded  boats,  in  which  were  priests, 
both  Buddhist  and  Taouists,  and  village  warriors  dis- 
charging matchlocks  to  terrify  the  water-devils ;  while 
the  men  in  the  first  boat  sprinkle  the  waters,  as  they 
advance,  with  blood-stained  sand." 

So,  again,  it  is  the  blood  of  a  cock, — not  the  body 
but  the  blood, — which  is  made  the  propitiatory  offering 
to  the  goddess  known  as  "  Loong-moo,  or  the  Dragon's 
Mother,"  on  the  river  junks  of  China.  The  blood  is 
sprinkled  on  the  deck,  near  a  temporary  altar,  where 
libations  of  wine  have  already  been  poured  out  by 
master  of  this  junk,  who  is  the  sacrificer.  Afterwards, 
bits  of  silver  paper  are  "  sprinkled  with  the  blood,  and 
then  fastened  to  the  door-posts  and  lintels  of  the 
cabin  "  ;^  as  if  in  token  of  the  blood-covenant  between 
those  who  are  within  those  doors  and  the  goddess 
whose  substitute  blood  is  there  affixed.  And  this 
precedes  the  feast  of  inter-communion.^ 

Nor  are  indications  wanting,  that  the  idea  of  inter- 
union  with  the  gods  by  blood  was  originally  linked 
with,  if  it  were  not  primarily  based  upon,  the  rite  of 
blood-covenanting  between  two  human  friends.  Thus, 
Archdeacon    Gray  unconsciously  discloses  traces  of 

^See  Exod.  12:  7-10.  ^Qray's  China^  II.,  271  f. 


154  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

this  rite,  in  his  description  of  the  exorcising  of  demons 
from  the  body  of  a  child,  by  a  Taouist  priest,  in  Can- 
ton.^ •  Certain  preliminary  ceremonies  were  concluded ; 
which  were  supposed  to  drive  out  the  demons.  "  The 
priest  then  proceeded  to  uncover  his  [own]  arm,  and 
made  an  incision  with  a  lancet  in  the  fleshy  part.  The 
blood  which  flowed  from  the  wound,  was  allowed  to 
mingle  with  a  small  quantity  of  water  in  a  cup.  The 
seal  of  the  temple,  the  impression  of  which  was  the 
name  of  the  idol,  was  then  dipped  into  the  blood,  and 
stamped  upon  the  wrists,  neck,  back  and  forehead^  of 
the  poor  heathen  child."  By  this  means,  that  child  was 
symbolically  sealed  in  covenant  relations  with  the  god 
of  that  temple,  by  the  substitute  blood  of  that  god's 
representative  priest. 

Thus,  also,  Dr.  Legge,  referring  to  old-time  cove- 
nantings  in  China,  says :  ^  "  Many  covenants  were  made 
among  the  feudal  princes, — made  over  the  blood  of  a 
victim,  with  which  each  covenanting  party  smeared  the 
corners  of  his  mouth  [which  is  one  form  of  tasting];"* 
while  an  appeal  was  addressed  to  the  invisible  powers 
to  inflict  vengeance  on  all  who  should  violate  the  con- 
ditions agreed  upon  [the  ordinary  imprecatory  prayers 
in  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting] ."  A  symbolic  inter- 

^  Gray's  China,  I.,  1 02. 
«See  Rev.  7:  3;  9:  4;  13:  16;  14:  i;  20:  4;  22:  4. 
*  The  Relig.  of  China,  p.  289.    *  See  The  Rite  in  Burmah,  in  Appendix. 


HUMAN  SACRIFICES  IN  INDIA.  1 55 

union  of  blood  is  a  basis  of  inter-communion  between 
two  human  beings,  as  also  between  the  human  and 
the  divine  beings  even  in  China — where,  perhaps,  that 
idea  would  be  least  likely  to  be  looked  for. 

It  is  a  common  opinion,  that  in  no  part  of  the  world 
is  there  a  more  general  prejudice  against  blood-shed- 
ding, or  the  taking  of  animal  life,  than  in  India.  And 
it  certainly  is  a  fact,  that  the  great  religious  systems, 
of  Brahmanism  and  of  Booddhism,  which  have  con- 
trolled the  moral  sense  of  the  peoples  of  India  for  a 
score  or  two  of  centuries,  have  exerted  themselves, 
in  the  main,  to  the  inculcation  of  these  views  as  to  the 
sacredness  of  blood  and  of  life — or  of  blood  which  is 
life.  Hence,  we  would  naturally  look,  in  India,  only 
for  traces,  or  vestiges,  of  the  primitive,  world-wide 
idea  of  inter-communion  with  God,  or  with  the  gods, 
through  a  divine-human  inter-union  by  blood.  Nor 
are  such  traces  and  vestiges  lacking  in  the  religious 
customs  of  India. 

In  India,  as  in  China,  human  sacrifices,  especially 
the  sacrifice  of  the  first-born  son,  were  formerly  made 
freely,  as  a  means  of  bringing  the  offerer  into  closer 
relations  with  the  gods,  through  the  outpoured  blood.^ 
It  was  the  blood,  as  the  life,  which  was  believed  to  be 
the  common  possession  of  gods,  men,  and  beasts ; 

*  See  Dubois's  Des.  Man.  and  Gust,  of  People  of  India,  Part  III., 
chap.  7 ;  also  Monier  Williams's  Hinduism,  p.  36  f. 


156  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

hence  the  final  substitution,  in  India,  of  beasts  for 
men,  in  the  blood-covenanting  with  the  gods.  On 
this  point,  the  evidence  seems  clear. 

The  Vedas,  or  sacred  books  of  the  Brahmans,  teach, 
indeed,  that  the  gods  themselves  were  mere  mortals, 
until  by  repeated  offerings  of  blood  in  sacrifice,  to 
the  Supreme  Being,  they  won  immortality  from  him  ; 
which  is  only  another  way  of  making  the  claim,  put 
forward  by  the  immortalized-mortal,  in  the  Book  of 
the  Dead,  of  ancient  Egypt,  that  the  mortal  became 
one  with  the  gods  through  an  interflow  of  a  common 
life  in  the  common  blood  of  the  two.  Mortals  gave 
the  blood  of  their  first-born  sons  in  sacrifice  to  the 
Supreme  Being.  Then  the  Supreme  Being  gave  the 
blood  of  his  first-born  male  in  sacrifice.  Thus,  the 
nature  of  the  favored  mortals  and  the  nature  of  the 
Supreme  Being  became  one  and  the  same.  Dr.  Monier 
Williams  cites  freely  from  the  Vedas  in  the  direction 
of  this  great  truth  ;  although  he  does  not  note  its  bear- 
ing on  the  blood-covenant  rite.  Thus,  in  "  the  follow- 
ing free  translation  of  a  passage  of  the  Satapatha- 
brahmana : 

*  The  gods  lived  constantly  in  dread  of  Death — 
The  mighty  Ender — so,  with  toilsome  rites 
They  worshiped,  and  repeated  sacrifices, 
Till  they  became  immortal.'  " 

"And  again  in  the  Taittiriya-brahmana :  *  By  means  of 


THE  SACRIFICIAL  PART  OF  ANIMALS.    1 57 

the  sacrifice  the  gods  obtained  heaven.'  "  In  the  Tan- 
dya-brahmanas :  "  The  lord  of  creatures  offered  him- 
self a  sacrifice  for  the  gods."  "And  again,  in  the 
Satapatha-brahmana :  *  He  who,  knowing  this,  sacri- 
fices with  the  Purusha-medha,  or  sacrifice  of  the  pri- 
meval male,  becomes  everything.'  "  ^ 

That  it  was  the  blood,  which  was  the  chief  element 
in  the  covenanting-sacrifice,  is  evident  from  all  the 
facts  in  the  case.  Thus,  in  the  Aitareya-brahmana,  it 
is  said:  "The  gous  killed  a  man  for  their  victim  [of 
sacrifice].  But  from  him  thus  killed,  the  part  which 
was  fit  for  a  sacrifice  went  out  and  entered  a  horse. 
Thence,  the  horse  became  an  animal  fit  for  being  sac- 
rificed. The  gods  then  killed  the  horse,  but  the  part 
of  it  fit  for  being  sacrificed  went  out  of  it  and  entered  an 
ox.  The  gods  then  killed  the  ox,  but  the  part  of  it  fit 
for  being  sacrificed  went  out  of  it  and  entered  a 
sheep.  Thence  it  entered  a  goat.  The  sacrificial  part 
remained  for  the  longest  time  in  the  goat ;  thence  it 
[the  goat]  became  preeminently  fit  for  being  sacri- 
ficed ! "  Indian  history  shows  that  this  has  been  the  pro- 
gress of  reform,  from  the  days  of  human  sacrifice  down- 
ward. "  It  is  remarkable  that  in  Vedic  times,  even  a  cow 
.  .  .  was  sometimes  killed ;  and  goats,  as  is  well 
known,  are  still  sacrificed  to  the  goddess  Kali."  ^  Kali, 
also  called  Doorga,  is  the  blood-craving  goddess.    The 

1  Monier  Williams's  Hinduism,  p.  35  f.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  37  f. 

14 


158  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

blood  of  one  human  victim,  it  is  said,  "  gives  her  a 
gleam  of  pleasure  that  endures  a  thousand  years ;  and 
the  sacrifice  of  three  men  together,  would  prolong  her 
ecstacy  for  a  thousand  centuries."  ^ 

Bishop  Heber  indicates  the  "sacrificial  part  "  of  the 
goat  as  he  saw  it  offered  at  a  temple  of  Kali  in  Umeer. 
He  was  being  shown  by  his  guide  through  that  city, 
on  his  first  visit  there,  and  the  guide  proposed  a  look 
at  the  temple.  "  He  turned  short,  and  led  us  some 
little  distance  up  the  citadel,  then  through  a  dark,  low 
arch  into  a  small  court,  where,  to  my  surprise,  the  first 
object  which  met  my  eyes  was  a  pool  of  blood  on  the 
pavement,  by  which  a  naked  man  stood  with  a  bloody 
sword  in  his  hand.  .  .  .  The  guide  .  .  .  cau- 
tioned me  against  treading  in  the  blood,  and  told  me 
that  a  goat  was  sacrificed  here  every  morning.  In 
fact  a  second  glance  showed  me  the  headless  body  of 
the  poor  animal  lying  before  the  steps  of  a  small 
shrine,  apparently  of  Kali.  The  Brahman  was  ofificia- 
ting  and  tinkling  his  bell.  .  .  .  The  guide  told 
us,  on  our  way  back,  that  the  tradition  was,  that,  in 
ancient  times  a  man  was  sacrificed  here  every  day ; 
that  the  custom  had  been  laid  aside  till  Jye  Singh  [the 
builder  of  Umeer]  had  a  frightful  dream,  in  which  the 
destroying  power  appeared  to  him,  and  asked  why 
her  image  was  suffered  to  be  dry  [It  is  blood,  not  flesh, 

^  Dubois's  Des.  of  Man.  and  Cust.  in  India,  Part  III.,  chap.  vii. 


INTER-  COMMUNION  IN  INDIA.  1 5  9 

that  moistens].  The  Rajah,  afraid  to  disobey,  and  re- 
luctant to  fulfil  the  requisition  to  its  ancient  extent  of 
horror,  took  counsel  and  substituted  a  goat  [in  which 
as  well  as  in  man  there  is  blood — which  is  life — which 
is  the  chief  thing  in  a  sacrifice  Godward]  for  the 
human  victim  ;  with  which  the 

*Dark  goddess  of  the  azure  flood, 

Whose  robes  are  wet  with  infant  tears, 
SkuU-chaplet  wearer,  whom  the  blood 
Of  man  delights  three  thousand  years,' 

was  graciously  pleased  to  be  contented."  ^ 

"  I  had  always  heard,  and  fully  believed  till  I  came 
to  India,"  says  Bishop  Heber,  "  that  it  was  a  grievous 
crime,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Brahmans,  to  eat  the  flesh 
or  shed  the  blood  of  any  living  creature  whatever.  I 
have  now  myself  seen  Brahmans  of  the  highest  caste 
cut  off  the  heads  of  goats,  as  a  sacrifice  to  Doorga ; 
and  I  know  from  the  testimony  of  Brahmans,  as  well 
as  from  other  sources,  that  not  only  hecatombs  of 
animals  are  often  offered  in  this  manner,  as  a  most 
meritorious  act  (a  Rajah,  about  twenty-five  years  back 
[say  about  a.  d.  1800],  offered  sixty  thousand  in  one 
fortnight) ;  but  that  any  persons,  Brahmans  not  ex- 
cepted, eat  readily  [in  inter-communion]  of  the  flesh 
which  has  been  offered  up  to  one  of  their  divinities."  ^ 
Clearly,  the  idea  of  inter-communion  with  the  gods, 

1  Heber's  Travels  in  India^  II.,  13  f.  ^  Ibid.,  II.,  285. 


l6o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

on  the  basis  of  the  inter-flow  of  blood,  exists  in  many 
Brahmanic  practices  of  to-day.  It  still  finds  its  ex- 
pression in  the  occasional  "Sacrifice  of  the  Yajna,  at 
which  a  ram  is  immolated."  It  is  claimed  by  the 
Brahmans  that  "  this  sacrifice  is  the  most  exalted  and 
the  most  meritorious  of  all  that  human  beings  can  de- 
vise. It  is  the  most  grateful  to  the  gods.  It  calls 
down  all  sorts  of  temporal  blessings,  and  blots  out  all 
the  sins  that  can  have  been  accumulated  for  four  gen- 
erations." The  ram  chosen  for  this  sacrifice  must  be 
"  entirely  white,  and  without  blemish  :  of  about  three 
years  old."  Only  Brahmans  who  are  free  from  physi- 
cal infirmities  and  from  ceremonial  defects  can  have 
a  part  in  its  offering,  "  at  which  no  man  of  any  other 
caste  can  be  present."  Because  of  the  Brahmanic 
horror  of  the  shedding  of  blood,  the  victim  is 
smothered,  or  "  strangled " ;  after  which  it  is  cut  in 
pieces,  and  burned  as  an  oblation.  "A  part,  however, 
is  preserved  for  him  who  presides  at  the  sacrifice,  and 
part  for  him  who  is  at  the  expense  of  it.  These  share 
their  portions  with  the  Brahmans  who  are  present ; 
amongst  whom  a  scuffle  ensues,  each  striving  for  a 
small  bit  of  the  flesh.  Such  morsels  as  they  can  catch 
they  tear  with  their  hands,  and  devour  as  a  sacred 
viand  [the  meat  of  inter-communion  with  the  gods]. 
This  practice  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  being  the 
only  occasion  in  their  [the  Brahmans']  lives  when  they 


OCCULT  SACRIFICES  OF  THE  HINDOOS.    l6l 

can  venture  to  touch  animal  food."  "This  most 
renowned  sacrifice  ...  is  one  of  the  six  privileges 
of  the  Brahmans  "  ;  and  it  would  seem  that  its  offering 
may  now  be  directed  to  any  one  of  the  divinities,  at 
the  preference  of  the  offerer.  Formerly  there  was  also 
the  "  Great  Sacrifice  of  the  Yajna,"  which  is  no  longer 
in  use.  "At  this  sacrifice,"  in  its  day,  "  every  species 
of  victim  was  immolated ;  and  it  is  beyond  doubt  that 
human  beings  even  were  offered  up ;  but  the  horse  and 
the  elephant  were  the  most  common."^  So,  there  has 
never  been  an  entire  absence  from  the  Brahmanic 
practices  of  an  inter-communion  with  the  gods  through 
an  inter-union  by  blood. 

Even  more  remarkable  than  this  canonical  sacrifice 
of  the  Yajna,  with  its  accompanying  inter-communion, 
are  some  of  the  occult  sacrifices  to  the  gods  of  the 
Hindoo  Pantheon,  in  which  all  the  ordinaiy  barriers 
of  caste  are  disregarded,  in  the  un-canonical  but  greatly 
prized  services  of  inter-communion  with  the  gods  on 
the  basis  of  an  inter-flow  of  blood.  The  offerinsfs  of 
blood-flowing  sacrifices,  including  even  the  cow,  are 
made  before  the  image  of  Vishnoo ;  or,  more  probably 
of  Krishna  as  one  of  the  forms  of  Vishnoo.  The  spirit- 
uous liquors  of  the  country  are  also  presented  as  drink- 
offerings.  Then  follows  the  inter-communion.  "  He 
who  administers  [at  the  offering  to  the  god]  tastes 

*  Dubois's  Des.  of  Man.  and  Cust.  of  India^  Part  II.,  chap.  xxxi. 
14* 


1 62  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

each  species  of  meat  and  of  liquor ;  after  which  he 
gives  permission  to  the  worshipers  to  consume  the 
rest.  Then  may  be  seen  men  and  women  rushing 
forward,  tearing  and  devouring.  One  seizes  a  morsel, 
and  while  he  gnaws  it,  another  snatches  it  out  of  his 
hands,  and  thus  it  passes  on  from  mouth  to  mouth  till 
it  disappears,  while  fresh  morsels,  in  succession,  are 
making  the  same  disgusting  round.  The  meat  being 
greedily  eaten  up,  the  strong  liquors  and  the  opium 
[which  have  all  been  offered  to  the  gods]  are  sent  round. 
All  drink  out  of  the  same  cup,  one  draining  what 
another  leaves,  in  spite  of  their  natural  abhorrence 
of  such  a  practice.  .  .  .  All  castes  are  confounded, 
and  the  Brahman  is  not  above  the  Pariah.  .  .  . 
Brahmans,  Sudras,  Pariahs,  men  and  women,  swill  the 
arrack  which  was  the  offering  to  the  Saktis,  regardless 
of  the  same  glass  being  used  by  them  all,  which  in 
ordinary  cases  would  excite  abhorrence.  Here  it  is  a 
virtuous  act  to  participate  in  the  same  morsel,  and  to 
receive  from  each  other's  mouths  the  half-gnawn 
flesh."  1 

The  fact  that  this  service  is  of  so  disgusting  a 
character,  does  not  lessen  its  importance  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  a  primitive  custom  degraded  by  successive 
generations  of  defiling  influences.  It  still  stands  as 
one   of  the   proofs  of   the    universal   custom   of   an 

^  Dubois's  Des.  of  Man,  and  Cust.  of  India^  Part  II.,  chap.  xi. 


THE  SA  CRAMENT  OF  JUG  GERNA  UT.      1 63 

attempted  inter-communion  with  the  gods  through 
an  inter-union  by  blood.  Indeed,  there  are  many 
traces,  in  India,  of  the  survival  of  this  primitive  idea. 
Referring  to  the  worship  of  Krishna,  under  the  form 
of  Jagan-natha  (or  Juggernaut,  as  the  name  is  popu- 
larly rendered)  a  recent  writer  on  India  says :  "  Be- 
fore this  monstrous  shrine,  all  distinctions  of  caste 
are  forgotten,  and  even  a  Christian  may  sit  down  and 
eat  with  a  Brahman.  In  his  work  on  Orissa,  Dr.  W. 
W.  Hunter,  says,  that  at  the  '  Sacrament  of  the  Holy 
Food '  he  has  seen  a  Puri  priest  receive  his  food  from  a 
Christian's  hand.  .  .  .  This  rite  is  evidently  also  a 
survival  of  Buddhism  [It  goes  a  long  way  back  of 
that].  It  is  remarkable  that  at  the  shrine  of  Vyan- 
koba,  an  obscure  form  of  Siva,  at  Pandharpur,  in  the 
Southern  Maratha  country,  caste  is  also  in  abeyance, 
all  men  being  deemed  equal  in  its  presence.  Food  is 
daily  sent  as  a  gift  from  the  god  to  persons  in  all  parts 
of  the  surrounding  country,  and  the  proudest  Brah- 
man gladly  will  accept  and  partake  of  it  from  the 
hands  of  the  Sudra,  or  Mahar,  who  is  usually  its 
bearer.  There  are  two  great  annual  festivals  in 
honor  of  Jagan-natha.  .  .  .  They  are  held  every- 
where ;  but  at  Puri  they  are  attended  by  pilgrims  from 
every  part  of  India,  as  many  as  200,ocxD  often  being 
present.  All  the  ground  is  holy  within  twenty  miles 
of   the    pagoda,   and    the   establishment    of   priests 


1 64  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

amounts  to  3000.  The  *  Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Food* 
is  celebrated  three  times  a  day."  ^ 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  the  idea  of  inter-communion 
with  the  gods  has  not  been  lost  sight  of  in  India,  even 
through  the  influence  of  Brahmanism  and  Booddhism 
against  the  idea  of  divine-human  inter-union  by  blood — 
which  is  life.  Indeed,  this  idea  so  pervades  the  relig- 
ious thought  of  the  Hindoos,  that  the  commands  are 
specific  in  their  sacred  books,  that  a  portion  of  all  food 
must  be  offered  to  the  spirits,  before  any  of  it  is 
partaken  of  by  the  eater.  "  It  is  emphatically  declared 
that  he  who  partakes  of  food  before  it  has  been  offered 
in  sacrifice  as  above  described,  eats  but  to  his  own 
damnation; "2  unless  he  discerns  there  the  principle 
of  divine-human  inter-communion,  he  eats  to  his  own 
spiritual  destruction.^ 

And  just  here  it  is  well  to  notice  an  incidental  item 
of  evidence  that  in  India,  as  in  the  other  lands  of  the 
East,  the  sacrifices  to  the  gods  were  in  some  way 
linked  with  the  primitive  rite  of  human  covenanting 
by  blood.  An  Oriental  scholar  has  called  attention  to 
the  origin  of  the  nose-ring,  so  commonly  worn  in  In- 
dia, as  described  in  the  Hindoo  Paga-Vatham.*  The 
story  runs,  that  at  the   incarnation   of  Vishnoo    as 

^"The  Hindu  Pantheon,"  in  Birdwood's  Indian  Arts^  p.  76  f. 

'  Ibid.^  p.  42.  8  I  Cor.  1 1 ;  29. 

*  See  Roberts's  Oriental  Illus,  of  Scriptures^  pp.  484-489. 


SYMBOLISM  OF  THE  NOSE-RING.  1 65 

Krishna,  the  holy  child's  life  was  sought,  and  his 
mother  exchanged  her  infant  for  the  child  of  another 
woman,  in  order  to  his  protection.  In  doing  so,  she 
"  bored  a  hole  in  the  nose  of  her  infant,  and  put  a  ring 
into  it  as  an  impediment  and  a  sign.  The  blood  which 
came  from  the  wound  was  as  a  sacrifice  to  prevent  him 
from  falling  into  the  hand  of  his  enemies."  And,  to 
this  day,  the  nose-ring  has  two  names,  indicative  of  its 
two-fold  purpose.  "The  first  [name]  is  nate-kaddan, 
which  signifies  *  the  obligation  or  debt  a  person  is  un- 
der by  a  vow  ' ;  the  second  [name]  is  mooka-taddi,  lit- 
erally *  nose-impediment  or  hindrance,'  that  is,  to  sick- 
ness or  death."  The  child's  blood  is  given  in  cove- 
nant obligation  to  the  gods,  and  the  nose-ring  is  the 
token  of  the  covenant-obligation,  and  a  pledge  of  pro- 
tected life.  When  a  Hindoo  youth  who  has  worn  a 
nose-ring  would  remove  it,  on  the  occasion  of  his  mar- 
riage, he  must  do  so  with  formal  ceremonies  at  the 
temple,  and  by  the  use  of  a  liquid  "  which  represents 
blood,"  composed  of  saffron,^  of  lime,  and  of  water.  A 
young  tree  must  also  be  planted  in  connection  with 
this  ceremony,  as  in  the  ceremony  of  blood-covenant- 
ing in  some  portions  of  the  East.^  These  symbolisms 
can  hardly  fail  to  be  recognized  as  based  on  the  uni- 
versal primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting.^ 

The  very  earliest  records  of  Babylon  and  Assyria, 
*  See  page  77,  j«/ra.  2Seepage53,j«/ra.  'See  also  page  1 94 Ej/w/^-a. 


1 66  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

indicate  the  outreaching  of  man  for  an  inter-union 
with  God,  or  with  the  gods,  by  substitute  blood,  and 
the  confident  inter-communion  of  man  with  God,  or 
with  the  gods,  on  the  strength  of  this  inter-union  by 
blood.  There  is  an  Akkadian  poem  which  clearly 
"  goes  back  to  pre-Semitic  times,"  with  its  later  As- 
syrian translation,  concerning  the  sacrifice  to  the  gods, 
of  a  first-born  son.^  It  says  distinctly :  "  His  offspring 
for  his  life  he  gave."  Here  is  obviously  the  idea  of 
vicarious  substitution,  of  life  for  life,  of  the  blood  of 
the  son  for  the  blood  of  the  father,  but  this  substitu- 
tion does  not  necessarily  involve  the  idea  of  an  expia- 
\  tory  offering  for  sin ;  even  though  it  does  include  the 
'■  idea  of  propitiation.  Abraham's  surrender  of  his 
first-born  son  to  God  was  in  proof  of  his  loving  trust, 
not  of  his  sense  of  a  penalty  due  for  sin.  Jephthah's 
surrender  of  his  daughter  was  on  a  vow  of  devotedness, 
not  as  an  exhibit  of  remorse,  or  of  penitence,  for  unex- 
piated  guilt.  In  each  instance,  the  outpouring  of  sub- 
stitute blood  was  in  evidence  of  a  desire  to  be  in  new 
covenant  oneness  with  God.  Thus  Queen  Manenko 
and  Dr.  Livingstone  made  a  covenant  of  blood  vicar- 
iously, by  the  substitution  of  her  husband  on  the  one 
part,  and  of  an  attendant  of  Livingstone,  on  the  other 
part^     So,  also  the  Akkadian  king  may  have  sought 

*See  Sayce's  paper,  in  Ti-ans.  Soc.  Bib.Arch,,Yo\.  I.,  Part  i,  pp.  25-31. 
2  See  page  13  f.,  supra. 


A    TABLE  OF  COMMUNION,  1 67 

a  covenant  union  with  his  god — from  whom  sin  had 
separated  him — by  the  substitute  blood  of  his  first- 
born and  best  loved  son. 

Certain  it  is,  that  the  early  kings  of  Babylon  and 
Assyria  were  accustomed  to  make  their  grateful  offer- 
ings to  the  gods,  and  to  share  those  offerings  with  the 
gods,  by  way  of  inter-communion  with  the  gods,  apart 
from  any  sense  of  sin  and  of  its  merited  punishment 
which  they  may  have  felt.^  Indeed,  it  is  claimed,  with 
a  show  of  reason,  that  the  very  word  (surqinu)  which 
was  used  for  "  altar  "  in  the  Assyrian,  was  primarily 
the  word  for  "  table  " ;  that,  in  fact,  what  was  later 
known  as  the  "  altar  "  to  the  gods,  was  originally  the 
table  of  communion  between  the  gods  and  their  wor- 
shipers.^ There  seems  to  be  a  reference  to  this 
idea  in  the  interchanged  use  of  the  words  "  altar  " 
and  "  table  "  by  the  Prophet  Malachi :  "And  ye  say, 
Wherein  have  ye  despised  thy  name  ?  Ye  offer  pol- 
luted bread  upon  mine  altar?  And  ye  say,  Wherein 
have  ye  polluted  thee?  In  that  ye  say,  The  table 
of  the  Lord  is  contemptible."^     So  again,  in  Isaiah 

^ "  Whether  he  has  overcome  his  enemies  or  the  wild  beasts,  he 
pours  out  a  libation  from  the  sacred  cup,"  says  Layard  {^Nineveh 
and  its  Remains,  Vol.  II.,  chap.  7)  concerning  the  old-time  King  of 
Nineveh. 

2  See  H.  Fox  Talbot's  paper,  in  Trans.   Soc.  Bib^  Arch.,  Vol.  IV., 

Part  I,  p.  58  f. 

3  Mai.  1 :  6,  7.  See  also  Isa.  65  :   n. 


1 68  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

65  :  1 1 :  "  But  ye  that  forsake  the  Lord,  that  forget 
my  holy  mountain,  that  prepare  a  table  for  Fortune, 
and  that  fill  up  mingled  wine  unto  Destiny;  I  will 
destine  you  to  the  sword,  and  ye  shall  all  bow  down 
to  the  slaughter." 

See,  in  this  connection,  the  Assyrian  inscription  of 
Esarhaddon,  the  son  of  Sennacherib,^  in  description  of 
his  great  palace  at  Nineveh :  "  I  filled  with  beauties  the 
great  palace  of  my  empire,  and  I  called  it  *  The  Palace 
which  Rivals  the  World.'  Ashur,  Ishtar  of  Nineveh, 
and  the  gods  of  Assyria,  all  of  them,  I  feasted  within 
it.  Victims  precious  and  beautiful  I  sacrificed  before 
them,  and  I  caused  them  to  receive  my  gifts.  I  did 
for  those  gods  whatever  they  wished."^  It  is  even 
claimed  by  Assyrian  scholars,  that  in  this  inter-com- 
munion with  the  gods,  worshipers  might  partake  of 
the  flesh  of  animals  which  was  forbidden  to  them  at 
all  other  times  ^ — as  among  the  Brahmans  of  India, 
to-day. 

In  farther  illustration  of  the  truth,  that  inter-com- 
munion with  the  gods  was  shown  in  partaking  of 
sacred  food  with  the  gods,  H.  Fox  Talbot,  the  Assyri- 
ologist,   says   of   the   ancient  Assyrian    inscription : 

*2  Kings  19:  37;  Ezra  4:  2;  Isa.  37:  38.  See  also  1  Cor.  10:  21. 

"^  Rec.  of  Past.  III.,  122  f. 
'  Sayce's  Anc.  Emp.  of  East,  p.  201 ;  also,  W.  Robertson  Smith's  Old 
Test,  in  Jew.  Ch.y  notes  on  Lect.  xii. 


THE  PAR  SEE  SACRAMENT.  1 69 

"There  is  a  fine  inscription,  not  yet  fully  trans- 
lated, describing  the  soul  in  heaven,  clothed  in  a 
white  radiant  garment,  seated  in  the  company  of  the 
blessed,  and  fed  by  the  gods  themselves,  with  celestial 
food."i 

Among  the  Parsees,  or  the  Zoroastrians,  who  inter- 
vene, as  it  were,  between  the  primitive  peoples  of 
Assyria  and  India,  and  the  later  inhabitants  of  the 
Persian  empire,  there  prevailed  the  same  idea  of  divine- 
human  inter-union  through  blood,  and  of  divine-human 
inter-communion  through  sharing  the  flesh  of  the  prof- 
fered and  accepted  sacrifice,  at  the  altar,  or  at  the 
table,  of  the  gods,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman.  The  horse 
was  a  favorite  substitute  victim  of  sacrifice,  among  the 
Parsees  ;  as  also  among  the  Hindoos  and  the  Chinese. 
Its  blood  was  the  means  of  divine-human  inter-union. 
"  The  flesh  of  the  victim  was  eaten  by  the  priest  and 
the  worshipers ;  the  '  soul '  [the  life,  the  blood],  of  it 
only  was  enjoyed  by  Ormazd."^  The  communion- 
drink,  in  the  Parsee  sacrament,  as  still  observed,  is  the 
juice  of  the  haoma,  or  horn.  "  Small  bread  [or  wafers] 
called  Darun,  of  the  size  of  a  dollar,  and  covered  with 
a  piece  of  meat,  incense,  and  Haoma,  or  Hom,"  the 
juice  of  the  plant  known  in  India  as  Soma,  are  used  in 
this  sacrament.  "The  Darun  and  the  Hom  [having 
been  presented  to  the  gods]  are  afterwards  eaten  by 

^Rec.  of  Past,  III.,  135.     "  Sayce's  Anc.  Emp.  of  East,  p.  266. 

15 


170  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  priests,"  as  in  communion.^     This   is   sometimes 
called  the  "  Sacrament  of  the  Haoma."  ^ 

In  ancient  Egypt,  it  seems  to  have  been  much  as  in 
China,  and  India,  and  Assyria.  Substitute  blood  was  a 
basis  of  inter-union  between  man  and  the  gods ;  and  a 
divine-human  inter-communion  was  secured  as  a  proof 
and  as  a  result  of  that  inter-union.  That  it  was  human 
blood  which  was,  of  old  in  Egypt,  poured  out  as  a 
means  of  this  inter-union  (in  some  cases  at  least)  seems 
clear.  It  is  declared  by  Manetho,  and  Diodorus,  and 
Athenseus,  and  Plutarch,  and  Porphyry.^  It  is  recog- 
nized as  proven,  by  Kenrick  ^  and  Ebers  ^  and  other 
Egyptian  scholars.  Wilkinson,  it  is  true,  was  unwill- 
ing to  accept  its  reality,  because,  in  his  opinion,  "it  is 
quite  incompatible  with  the  character  of  a  nation 
whose  artists  thought  acts  of  clemency  towards  a  foe 
worthy  of  record,  and  whose  laws  were  distinguished 
by  that  humanity  which  punished  with  death  the  mur- 
der even  of  a  slave  "  ;  ^  and  he  prefers  to  rest  on  "  the 
improbability  of  such  a  custom  among  a  civilized  peo- 
ple." Yet,  a  single  item  of  proof  from  the  monuments 
I 

*  SchafF-Herzog's  Encyc.  of  Relig.  KnoivL,  art.  "  Parseeism." 

^  Anc.  Efnp.  of  East,  p.  266. 

*See  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  30,  400. 

*  Kenrick's  Anc.  Egypt,  I.,  369  ff. 

^  Ebers's  ^Egypt.  u.  d.  Buck.  Mose's,  p.  245  f. 

*  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  402. 


COMMUNION  IN  EGYPT.  I/I 

would  seem  sufficient  to  settle  this  question,  if  it  were 
still  deemed  a  question.  The  ideogram  which  was  em- 
ployed on  the  seal  of  the  priests,  authorizing  the 
slaying  of  an  animal  in  sacrifice,  "  bore  the  figure  of  a 
man  on  his  knees,  with  his  hands  tied  behind  him,  and 
a  sword  pointed  at  his  throat."  ^ 

Herodotus,^  describing  the  magnificent  festival  of 
Isis,  at  Busiris,  says  that  a  bull  was  sacrificed  on  that 
occasion ;  and  we  know  that  in  every  such  sacrifice 
the  blood  of  the  victim  was  poured  out  as  an  oblation, 
at  the  altar .^  When  the  duly  prepared  offering  was 
consumed  upon  the  altar,  those  portions  of  the  victim 
which  had  been  reserved  were  eaten  by  the  priest  and 
others.*  Herodotus  says,  moreover,  that  some  of  the 
Greeks  who  were  present  at  this  festival,  were  in  the 
habit  of  causing  their  own  blood  to  flow  during  the 
consuming  of  the  sacrifice,  as  if  in  proof  of  their 
desire  for  inter-union  with  the  goddess,  as  precedent 
to  their  inter-communion  with  her.  He  says :  "  But 
as  many  of  the  Karians  as  are  dwelling  in  Egypt,  do 
yet  more  than  these  [native  Egyptians],  inasmuch  as 

^  Cited  from  Castor,  in  Plutarch,  in  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  407. 
See  also  Ebers's  ^gypt.  u.  d.  Buck.  Mose'Sy  p.  246. 
2  HisL,  II.,  59. 

'  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  409.     See  also  page  102,  supra. 

*  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  109 ;  410 ;  Kenrick's  Anc.  Egypt.,  I., 
373.     See  Herodotus,  Hist.,  II.,  47. 


172  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

they  cut  their  foreheads  with  swords ;  ^  and  so  they 
are  shown  to  be  foreigners  and  not  Egyptians."  ^ 

It  would  even  seem  that  in  Egypt,  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  primitive  world,  the  prohibition  of  the  eating 
of  many  sacred  animals  applied  to  the  eating  of  them 
when  not  offered  in  sacrifice.  Because  those  animals 
became,  as  it  were,  on  the  altar,  or  on  the  table,  of  the 
gods,  a  portion  of  the  gods  themselves,  they  must  not 
be  eaten  except  by  those  who  discerned  in  them  the 
body  of  the  gods,  and  who  were  entitled  to  share 
them  in  inter-communion  with  the  gods.^ 

The  monumental  representations  of  the  other  world 
show  the  gods  sharing  food  and  drink  with  the  souls 
of  the  deceased.^  And  the  idea  of  a  divine-human 
inter-communion  through  the  partaking  by  gods  and 
men  of  the  food  provided  for,  or  accepted  by,  the  for- 
mer, runs  all  through  the  Egyptian  record.  A  re- 
markable illustration  of  this  idea  is  found  in  an 
extended  inscription  from  the  tomb  of  Setee  I.,  whose 
daughter  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  finder  of  the 
infant  Moses.  In  this  inscription,  which  is  sometimes 
called  the  Book  of  Hades,  or  more  properly  the  Book 
of  Amenti,  the  Sun-god  Ra  is  represented  as  passing 
through  Amenti — or  the  under  world — on  his  noctur- 

^Hist.y  II.,  61.     2  See  references  to  this  custom  at  page  85  ff.,  szipra. 

*See  Wilkinson's  Anc.  Egypt.^  III.,  404-406. 

*Renoufs  The  Relig.  of  Anc.  Egypt,  pp.  138-147. 


HIS  WORD  IS  BREAD.  1 73 

nal  circuit,  and  speaking  words  of  approval  to  his 
disembodied  worshipers  there.^  "  These  are  they  who 
worshiped  Ra  on  the  earth,  .  .  .  who  offered 
their  oblations.  .  .  .  They  are  [now]  masters  of 
their  refreshments ;  they  take  their  meat ;  they  seize 
their  offerings  in  the  porch  of  him,  whose  being  is 
mysterious.  .  .  .  Ra  says  to  them.  Your  offerings 
are  yours  ;  take  your  refreshment."  Again  and  again 
the  declaration  is  made  of  "the  elect,"  of  those  who  are 
greeted  by  Ra  in  Amenti :  "  Their  food  is  (composed) 
of  Ra's  bread ;  their  drink  [is]  of  his  liquor  tesher  [a 
common  word  for  "  red,"  often  standing  for  "  blood  "  ^]. 
And  yet  again  :  "  Their  food  is  to  hear  the  word  of 
this  god."^  "Their  food  is  that  of  the  veridical  [the 
truth-speaking]  ones.  Offerings  are  [now]  made  to 
them  on  earth ;  because  the  true  word  is  in  them."* 

Thus  there  was  inter-communion  between  man  and 
the  gods  in  ancient  Egypt,  on  the  basis  of  a  blood- 
made  inter-union  between  man  and  the  gods ;  as  there 
was  also  in  primitive  Assyria  and  Babylon,  in  primi- 
tive India,  and  in  primitive  China. 

Turning  now  from  the  far  East  to  the  far  West,  we 

1  See  Rec.  of  Past,  X.,  79-134.  *  See  page  102  f.,  supra. 

'  "  Man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by  every  word  that  proceed- 
eth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  man  live."  (Deut.  8 :  3.  See, 
also,  Matt.  4:  4;  Job  23:  12;  John  4:  34.) 

*  See  John  8:  31,32;  16:  13;  17:  19. 

15* 


174  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

find  that  Central  American  and  South  American  his- 
tory and  legends  tend  to  illustrate  the  same  primitive 
belief,  that  inter-communion  with  the  gods  was  to  be 
secured  by  the  hearty  surrender  of  self — as  evidenced 
by  the  tender  of  personal,  or  of  substitute  blood.  A 
Guatemalan  legend  has  its  suggestion  of  that  out- 
reaching  of  man  for  fire  from  heaven,  which  is  illus- 
trated in  the  primitive  and  the  classic  myths  of  the 
ages.^  The  men  of  Guatemala  were  without  the  hea- 
ven-born fire,  and  they  turned,  in  their  longing,  to  the 
Quiche  god,  Tohil,  seeking  it  from  him,  on  such  terms 
as  he  might  prescribe.  "  The  condition  finally  named 
by  the  god  was,  that  they  consent  to  *  unite  themselves 
to  me,  under  their  armpit,  and  under  their  girdle,  and 
that  they  embrace  me,  Tohil ' ;  a  condition  not  very 
clearly  expressed  [says  a  historian],  but  which,  as 
is  shown  by  what  follows,  was  an  agreement  to 
worship  the  Quiche  god,  and  sacrifice  to  him  their 
bloody  and,  if  required,  their  children.  They  accepted 
the  condition,  and  received  the  fire."^ 

In  the  light  of  the  prevailing  customs  of  the  world, 
concerning  this  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  the  require- 

1  See  R^ville's  Native  Relig.  of  Mex.  and  Peru,  pp.  63,  163  ;  Cory's 
Anc,  Frag.,  p.  5  ;  Dubois's  Des.  Man.  and  Cust.  of  India,  Part  II.,  chap. 
31 ;  Tylor's  Prim.  Cult.,  II.,  278  ff. ;  Dorman's  Orig.  of  Prim.  Supers.^ 
p.  1 50*  Anderson's  Lake  Ngami,  p.  220. 

2  Bancroft's  Native  Races,  V.,  547  f. 


PARTAKING  OF  THE  BODY  AND  BLOOD.    175 

ments  of  the  Quiche  god  were  clearly  based  on  the 
symbolism  of  that  rite ;  as  the  historian  did  not  per- 
ceive, from  his  unfamiliarity  with  the  rite.  If  men 
would  be  in  favor  with  that  god,  and  would  receive  his 
choicest  gifts,  they  must  unite  themselves  to  him; 
must  enter  into  oneness  of  nature  with  him,  by  giving 
of  their  blood,  from  "  under  their  armpit,  and  under 
their  girdle  " ;  from  the  source  of  life,  and  at  the  issue 
of  life ;  for  themselves  and  for  their  seed ;  and  they 
must  lovingly  embrace  their  covenant-god,  accord- 
ingly. And  in  the  counsel  given  to  those  new 
worshipers,  it  was  said :  "  Make  first  your  thanksgiv- 
ing ;  prepare  the  holes  in  your  ears ;  [blood  was  drawn 
from  the  ears,  as  well  as  from  other  parts  of  the  body, 
in  Central  American  worship ;  indeed  one  of  their 
festivals  was  '  the  feast  of  piercing  the  ears,'  suggest- 
ing a  similar  religious  custom  in  India  ;^]  pierce 
your  elbows ;  and  offer  sacrifice.  This  will  be  your 
act  of  gratitude  before  God."  ^ 

Among  all  these  aboriginal  races  of  Central  Amer- 
ica, not  only  was  the  flesh  of  the  sacrificial  offerings 
eaten  as  in  communion  with  the  gods ;  but  the  blood 
of  the  offerings,  and  also  the  blood  of  the  offerers 
themselves,  was  sometimes  sprinkled  upon,  or  com- 
mingled with,  those  articles  of  food,  which  were  made 

*  Monier  Williams's  Hinduism^  p.  60. 
»  Bancroft's  Native  Races,  V.,  548. 


176  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

a  means  of  spiritual  inter-communion  with  their  deities. 
Cakes  of  maize  sprinkled  with  their  own  blood,  drawn 
from  "  uhder  the  girdle,"  during  their  religious  wor- 
ship, were  "  distributed  and  eaten  as  blessed  bread."  ^ 
Moreover,  an  image  of  their  god,  made  with  certain 
seeds  from  the  first  fruits  of  their  temple  gardens,  with 
a  certain  gum,  and  with  the  blood  of  human  sacrifices, 
was  partaken  of  by  them  reverently,  under  the  name, 
"  Food  of  our  soul."  ^  At  the  conclusion  of  one  of 
the  great  feasts  of  the  year  at  Cuzco,  in  Peru,  the  wor- 
shipers "  received  the  loaves  of  maize  and  the  sacrifi- 
cial blood,  which  they  ate  as  a  symbol  of  brotherhood 
with  the  Ynca  "  ^ — who  claimed  to  be  of  divine  blood 
and  of  divine  power. 

Herrera  describes  one  of  these  ceremonies  of  inter- 
communion with  the  gods,  by  means  of  a  blood-mois- 
tened representation  of  a  god.  "An  idol  made  of  all 
the  varieties  of  the  seeds  and  grain  of  the  country, 
was  made,  and  moistened  with  the  blood  of  children 
and  virgins.  This  idol  was  broken  into  small  bits, 
and  given  by  way  of  communion  to  men  and  women 
to  eat ;  who,  to  prepare  for  that  festival,  bathed,  and 

*  Bancroft's  Native  Races,  II.,  710. 

*  Mendieta's  Hist.  Eccles.  Ind.,  p.  108  f. ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des. 
Soc,  II.,  20. 

'  Acosta's  Jlist.  Nat.  Mor.  Ind.,  Bk.  V.,  chap.  27,  cited  in  Spencer's 
Des.  Soc.f  II.,  26. 


A  DEVICE  OF  SATAN.  I  77 

dressed  their  heads,  and  scarce  slept  all  the  night. 
They  prayed,  and  as  soon  as  it  was  day  [they  ]  were 
all  in  the  temple  to  receive  that  communion,  with  such 
singular  silence  and  devotion,  that  though  there  was 
an  infinite  multitude,  there  seemed  to  be  nobody.  If 
any  of  the  idol  was  left,  the  priests  ate  it."  ^ 

So  marked,  indeed,  was  the  sacramental  character 
of  these  Peruvian  communion  feasts,  that  a  Spanish 
Jesuit  missionary  to  that  country,  three  centuries  ago, 
was  disposed  to  see  in  them  an  invention  of  Satan, 
rather  than  a  survival  of  a  world-wide  primitive  cus- 
tom. He  said :  '*  That  which  is  most  admirable  in  the 
hatred  and  presumption  of  Sathan  is,  that  he  not  only 
counterfeited  in  idolatry  and  sacrifices,  but  also  in 
certain  ceremonies,  our  sacraments,  which  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  instituted,  and  the  Holy  Church  uses;  hav- 
ing, especially,  pretended  to  imitate,  in  some  sort,  the 
sacrament  of  the  communion,  which  is  the  most  high 
and  divine  of  all  others."  ^ 

Yet  again,  a  prisoner  of  war  would  be  selected  to 
represent  one  of  the  gods,  and  so  to  be  partaken  of, 
in  inter-communion  through  his  blood.  He  would 
receive  the  name  of  the  god ;   and  for  a  longer  or  a 

^Herrera's  Gen.  Hist,  of  America,ll.,  379;  cited  in  Dorman's  Orig. 
of  Prim.  Supers. y  p.  152  f. 

2  Acosta's  Hist.  Nat.  Mor.  Ind.,  Bk.  V.,  chap.  23  ;  cited  in  Prescott's 
Conquest  of  Feruy  I.,  108,  note. 


178  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

shorter  time, — "  sometimes  a  year,  sometimes  six 
months,  and  sometimes  less," — he  would  be  min- 
istered to,  and  would  receive  honors  and  reverence  as 
a  god.  Then  he  would  be  offered  in  sacrifice.  His 
heart  would  be  presented  to  the  god.  His  blood 
would  be  employed  reverently — as  was  the  case  with 
all  sacrifices — in  token  of  covenanting.  His  flesh 
would  be  eaten  by  the  worshipers  of  the  god  whom 
he  represented.^  This  "  rite  of  dressing  and  worship- 
ing the  sacrifices  like  the  deities  themselves,  is  related 
as  being  performed  at  the  festivals  of  many  gods  and 
goddesses."  ^ 

A  remarkable  illustration  of  the  unity  of  the  race, 
and  of  the  universal  sweep  of  these  customs  in  con- 
junction with  the  symbolism  of  the  blood-covenant, 
is  found  in  the  similarity  of  this  last  named  Central 
American  practice,  with  a  practice  charged  upon  the 
Jews  by  Apion,  as  replied  to  by  Josephus.  The  charge 
is,  that  "Antiochus  found,  upon  entering  the  temple 
[at  Jerusalem],  a  man  lying  upon  a  bed,  with  a  table 
before  him,  set  out  with  all  the  delicacies  that  either 
sea  or  land  could  afford."  This  captive's  story  was : 
"  I  am  a  Greek,  and  wandering  up  and  down  in  quest 

^Herrera's  Gen.  Hist.,  III.,  207  f. ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc. 
IL,  20. 

2  Spencer's  Des.  Soc,  IL,  20.  See  also  Southey's  Hist,  of  Bra- 
zil, II.,  370. 


SACRIFICING  AND  FEASTING.  1 79 

of  the  means  of  subsistence,  was  taken  up  by  some 
foreigners,  brought  to  this  place,  and  shut  up.  .  .  . 
They  gave  me  to  understand,  that  the  Jews  had  a  cus- 
tom among  them,  once  a  year,  upon  a  certain  day  pre- 
fixed, to  seize  upon  a  Grecian  stranger,  and  when  they 
had  kept  him  fattening  one  whole  year,  to  take  him 
into  a  wood,  and  offer  him  up  for  a  sacrifice  according 
to  their  own  form,  taking  a  taste  of  his  blood,  with  a 
horrid  oath  to  live  and  die  sworn  enemies  to  the 
Greeks."^  Baseless  as  was  this  charge  against  the 
Jews,  its  very  framing  indicates  the  existence  in  the 
East, — ^possibly  among  the  Phoenicians, — in  days  prior 
to  the  Christian  era,  as  well  as  in  pre-historic  times  in 
the  West,  of  the  custom  of  seeking  inter-communion 
with  God,  or  with  the  gods,  by  the  tasting  of  the  blood 
of  a  substitute  human  victim,  offered  in  sacrifice  to 
God,  or  to  the  gods. 

At  the  two  extremes  of  the  world,  to-day,  among 
the  primitive  Bed'ween  of  the  Desert  of  Arabia,  and 
among  the  primitive  Indians  of  the  prairies  of  North 
America,  there  lingers  a  trace  of  this  world-wide  idea, 
that  the  body  of  an  offering  covenanted  to  God  by  its 
blood,  can  be  a  means  of  inter-communion  with  God 
in  its  eating.  Both  the  Bed'ween  and  the  Indians  con- 
nect in  their  minds  the  fact  of  sacrificing  and  of  feast- 
ing ;  and  they  speak  of  the  two  things  interchangeably. 

^  Contra  Apionem^  H-j  7- 


l8o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

An  Arab,  when  he  makes  a  feast,  speaks  of  sacri- 
ficing the  animal  which  is  the  main  feature  of  that 
feast.  I  saw  an  Arab  wedding  at  Castle  Nakhl,  on 
the  Arabian  Desert.  The  bridegroom  sacrificed  a 
young  dromedary  in  honor  of  the  occasion,  and  to 
furnish,  as  it  were,  the  sacramental  feast.  The  blood 
of  the  victim  was  poured  out  unto  the  Lord,  by  being 
buried  in  the  earth — as  the  Chinese  bury  the  blood  of 
their  sacrifices  in  the  Temple  of  Heaven.  Portions 
of  the  dromedary  were  eaten  by  all  the  guests,  and  a 
portion  was  sent  to  the  stranger  encamping  near  them. 
And  that  is  the  common  method  of  Arab  sacrificing 
and  feasting. 

There  is  much  of  similarity  in  the  ways  of  the  Arabs 
and  of  the  Indians.  The  Indian  feasts  are  largely 
feasts  of  inter-communion  with  the  gods.  Whether  it 
were  the  human  victim,  of  former  times,  whose  blood 
was  drunk  and  whose  heart  was  eaten,  as  preliminary 
to  the  feasting  on  his  entire  remains ; '  or,  whether  it 
be  the  preserved  hearts  and  tongues  of  the  buffaloes, 
which  now  form  the  basis  of  some  of  the  sacred  feasts 
of  the  Indians;^ — the  idea  of  divine-human  inter- 
communion was  and  is  inseparable  from  the  idea  of 
the  feast.  The  first  portion  of  the  feast  is  always 
proffered  to  the  spirits,  in  order  to  make  it,  in  a  pecu- 

^  See  pages  105  f.,  132,  supra. 
2 See  Clark's  Indian  Sign  Language^  s.  v.,  "Feast." 


ONL  Y  EDIBLE  ANIMALS  SA  CRIFICED.        1 8 1 

liar  sense,  a  sacred  feast.  Then,  each  person  having 
a  part  in  the  feast  is  expected  to  eat  the  full  share 
assigned  to  him/  unless  indeed  he  be  permitted  to 
carry  a  remainder  of  it  away  "  as  sacred  food  "  for  the 
benefit  of  the  others.^ 

And  so  the  common  root-idea  shows  itself,  in  lesser 
or  in  larger  degree,  all  the  world  over,  and  in  all  the 
ages.     It  is  practically  universal. 

One  of  the  many  proofs  that  the  idea  of  a  blood- 
covenanting  sacrifice  is  that  of  a  loving  inter-commu- 
nion between  man  and  God,  or  the  gods,  is  the  fact 
that  the  animals  offered  in  sacrifice  are  always  those 
animals  which  are  suitable  for  eating,  whether  their 
eating  is  allowed  at  other  times  than  when  sacrificed, 
or  not  "Animals  offered  in  sacrifice  [at  the  Temple 
of  Heaven,  in  China],"  says  Dr.  Edkins,  "  must  be 
those  in  use  for  human  food.  There  is  no  trace  in 
China  of  any  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean 
animals,  as  furnishing  a  principle  in  selecting  them  for 

^"Should  he  fail  [to  eat  his  portion],  the  host  would  be  outraged, 
the  community  shocked,  and  the  spirits  roused  to  vengeance.  Disaster 
would  befall  the  nation — death,  perhaps,  the  individual."  "A  feaster 
unable  to  do  his  full  part,  might,  if  he  could,  hire  another  to  aid  him ; 
otherwise  he  must  remain  in  his  place  till  the  work  was  done."  (Park- 
man's  Jesuits  in  No.  Am.,  p.  xxxviii.) 

2  "At  some  feasts  guests  are  permitted  to  take  home  some  small  por- 
tions for  their  children  as  sacred  food,  especially  good  for  them  because  it 
came  from  a  feast."     (Clark's  Ind.  Sign  Lang.,  p.  i68.) 

i6 


1 82  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

sacrifice.  That  which  is  good  for  food  is  good  for 
sacrifice,  is  the  principle  guiding  in  their  selection."  ^ 
The  same  principle  has  been  already  noted  as  prevail- 
ing in  the  sacrifices  of  India,  Assyria,  and  Egypt; 
although  in  these  last  named  countries  many  animals 
which  are  "  good  for  food  "  are  not  "  in  use  for  human 
food  "  except  as  they  are  served  up  at  the  table  of  the 
gods.^  In  the  primitive  New  World  it  was  the  same  as 
in  the  primitive  Old  World.  Referring  to  the  sacrifices 
in  ancient  Peru,  Reville  says,  "  It  should  be  noted  that 
they  only  sacrificed  edible  animals,  which  [as  he  would 
understand  it]  is  a  clear  proof  that  the  intention  was 
to  feed  the  gods " ;  ^  and  it  certainly  seems  a  clear 
proof  that  the  intention  was  to  feed  the  worshipers 
who  shared  the  sacred  food. 

That  this  sharing  of  the  proffered  and  accepted  sac- 
rifice, in  divine-human  inter-communion,  was  counted 
a  sharing  of  the  divine  nature,  by  the  communicant, 
seems  evident,  as  widely  as  the  world-wide  custom 
extended.  The  inter-union  was  wrought  by  inter- 
mingled blood  ;  the  inter-communion  gave  a  common 
progress  to  the  common  nature.  The  blood  gave  com- 
mon life ;  the  flesh  gave  common  nourishment.  "  Al- 
most   everywhere,"    says    Reville,"*    "but    especially 

^  Edkins's  Relig.  in  China,  p.  22,  note. 

'  See  pages  159,  168,  172,  supj-a. 

^  R6ville's  Native  Relig.  of  Mex.  and  Peru,  p.  1 83.      *•  Bid.,  p.  76. 


THE  BASIS  OF  CANNIBALISM.  1 83 

among  the  Aztecs,  we  find  the  notion,  that  the  victim 
devoted  to  a  deity,  and  therefore  destined  to  pass  into 
his  substance,  and  to  become  by  assimilation  an 
integral  part  of  him,  is  already  co-substantial  with 
him,  has  already  become  part  of  him ;  so  that  the 
worshiper  in  his  turn,  by  himself  assimilating  a  part 
of  the  victim's  flesh,  unites  himself  in  substance 
with  the  divine  being.  And  now  observe  [continues 
this  student  in  the  science  of  comparative  religion] 
that  in  all  religions  the  longing,  whether  grossly 
or  spiritually  apprehended,  to  enter  into  the  closest 
possible  union  with  the  adored  being,  is  fundamental. 
This  longing  is  inseparable  from  the  religious  senti- 
ment itself,  and  becomes  imperious  wherever  that 
sentiment  is  warm ;  and  this  consideration  is  enough 
to  convince  us  that  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  most 
exalted  tendencies  of  our  nature,  but  may  likewise,  in 
times  of  ignorance,  give  rise  to  the  most  deplorable 
aberrations."  This  observation  is  the  more  note- 
worthy, in  that  it  is  made  by  so  pronounced  a  ration- 
alist as  Reville. 

It  would  even  seem  to  be  indicated,  by  all  the  trend 
of  historic  facts,  that  cannibalism — gross,  repulsive, 
inhuman  cannibalism — had  its  basis  in  man's  perver- 
sion of  this  outreaching  of  his  nature  (whether  that 
outreaching  were  first  directed  by  revelation,  or  by 
divinely  given  innate  promptings)  after  inter-union  and 


184  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

inter-communion  with  God  ;  after  life  in  God's  life,  and 
after  growth  through  the  partaking  of  God's  food,  or 
of  that  food  which  represents  God.  The  studies  of 
many  observers  in  widely  different  fields  have  led  both 
the  rationalistic  and  the  faith-filled  student  to  conclude, 
that  in  their  sphere  of  observation  it  was  a  religious 
sentiment,  and  not  a  mere  animal  craving, — either 
through  a  scarcity  of  food,  or  from  a  spirit  of  malig- 
nity,— that  was  at  the  bottom  of  cannibalistic  practices 
there;  even  if  that  field  were  an  exception  to  the 
world's  fields  generally.  And  now  we  have  a  glimpse 
of  the  nature  and  workings  of  that  religious  sentiment 
which  prompted  cannibalism  wherever  it  has  been 
practised. 

Man  longed  for  oneness  of  life  with  God.  Oneness 
of  life  could  come  only  through  oneness  of  blood. 
To  secure  such  oneness  of  life,  man  would  give  of  his 
own  blood,  or  of  that  substitute  blood  which  could 
best  represent  himself.  Counting  himself  in  oneness 
of  life  with  God,  through  the  covenant  of  blood,  man 
has  sought  for  nourishment  and  growth  through  par- 
taking of  that  food  which  in  a  sense  was  life,  and  which 
in  a  larger  sense  gave  life,  because  it  was  the  food  of 
God,  and  because  it  was.  the  food  which  stood  for  God. 
In  misdirected  pursuance  of  this  thought,  men  have 
given  the  blood  of  a  consecrated  human  victim  to 
bring  themselves  into  union  with  God ;  and  then  they 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  HUMAN  FLESH.       1 85 

have  eaten  of  the  flesh  of  that  victim  which  had  sup- 
plied the  blood  which  made  them  one  with  God.  This 
seems  to  be  the  basis  of  fact  in  the  premises ;  what- 
ever may  be  the  understood  philosophy  of  the  facts. 
Why  men  reasoned  thus,  may  indeed  be  in  question. 
That  they  reasoned  thus,  seems  evident. 

Certain  it  is,  that  where  cannibalism  has  been  stud- 
ied in  modern  times,  it  has  commonly  been  found  to 
have  had  originally,  a  religious  basis ;  and  the  infer- 
ence is  a  fair  one,  that  it  must  have  been  the  same 
wherever  cannibalism  existed  in  earlier  times.  Even 
in  some  regions  where  cannibalism  has  long  since 
been  prohibited,  there  are  traditions  and  traces  of  its 
former  existence  as  a  purely  religious  rite.  Thus,  in 
India,  little  images  of  flour  paste  or  clay,  are  now 
made  for  decapitation,  or  other  mutilation,  in  the  tem- 
ples,^ in  avowed  imitation  of  human  beings,  who  were 
once  offered  and  eaten  there.  Referring  to  the  fre- 
quency of  human  sacrifices  in  India,  in  earlier  and  in 
later  times,  and  to  these  emblematic  substitutes  for 
them,  now  employed,  the  Abbe  Dubois  says : ^  "In 
the  kingdom  of  Tanjore  there  is  a  village  called 
Tirushankatam  Kudi,  where  a  solemn  festival  is  cele- 
brated every  year,  at  which  great  multitudes  of  people 
assemble ,  each  votary  bringing  with  him  one  of  those 

^  See  page  176  f.,  sup-a. 

^Pes.  of  Man,  and  Cust.  of  Indiay  Part  III.,  chap.  7. 
16* 


1 86  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

little  images  of  dough,  into  the  temple,  dedicated  to 
Vishnu,  and  there  cutting  off  the  head  in  honor  of 
that  god.  This  ceremony,  which  is  annually  per- 
formed with  great  solemnity,  was  instituted  in  com- 
memoration of  a  famous  event  which  happened  in  that 
village. 

"  Two  virtuous  persons  lived  there,  Sirutenden  and 
his  wife  Vanagata-ananga,  whose  faith  and  piety 
Vishnu  was  desirous  to  prove.  He  appeared  to  them, 
and  demanded  no  other  service  of  them  but  that  of 
sacrificing,  with  their  own  hands,  their  only  and  much 
beloved  son  Siralen,  and  serving  up  his  flesh  for  a 
repast.  The  parents  with  heroic  courage,  surmounting 
the  sentiments  and  chidings  of  nature,  obeyed  without 
hesitation,  and  submitted  to  the  pleasure  of  the  god. 
So  illustrious  an  act  of  devotion  is  held  worthy  of  this 
annual  commemoration,  at  which  the  sacrifice  is  em- 
blematically renewed.  The  same  barbarous  custom  is 
preserved  in  many  parts  of  India ;  and  the  ardor  with 
which  the  people  engage  in  it  leaves  room  to  suspect 
that  they  still  regret  the  times  when  they  would  have 
been  at  liberty  to  offer  up  to  their  sanguinary  gods, 
the  reality,  instead  of  the  symbol." 

Such  a  legend  as  this,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
custom  which  perpetuates  it,  and  with  all  the  known 
history  of  human  sacrifices,  in  India  and  elsewhere, 
furnishes  evidence  that  cannibalism  as  a  religious  rite 


FEEJEE  AND  MOHAWK  CANNIBALISM.     1 87 

was  known  to  the  ancestors  of  the  present  dwellers  in 
India.  And  as  it  is  in  the  far  East,  so  it  is  in  the  far 
West ;  and  so,  also,  in  mid-ocean. 

Thus,  for  example,  in  the  latter  field,  among  the 
degraded  Feejee  Islanders,  where  one  would  be  least 
likely  to  look  for  the  sway  of  a  religious  sentiment 
in  the  more  barbarous  customs  of  that  barbarous 
people,  this  truth  has  been  recognized  by  Christian  mis- 
sionaries, who  would  view  the  relics  of  heathenism  with 
no  undue  favor.  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Williams  and  Cal- 
vert,— the  one  after  thirteen  years,  and  the  other  after 
seventeen  years  of  missionary  service  there, — said  on 
this  subject:  "Cannibalism  is  a  part  of  the  Fijian  re- 
ligion, and  the  gods  are  described  as  delighting  in 
human  flesh."  And  again  :  "  Human  flesh  is  still  the 
most  valued  offering  [to  the  gods],  and  their  *  drink 
offerings  of  blood '  are  still  the  most  acceptable  [offer- 
ings to  the  gods]  in  some  parts  of  Fiji."  ^ 

It  was  the  same  among  the  several  tribes  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  according  to  the  most  trustworthy 
testimony.  A  Dutch  clergyman.  Dominie  Megapolen- 
sis,  writing  two  centuries  ago  from  near  the  present 
site  of  Albany,  "Ipears  the  strongest  testimony  to  the 
ferocity  with  which  his  friends,  the  Mohawks  treated 
their  prisoners,     .     .     .     and  is  very  explicit  as  to 

1  See  William  and  Calvert's  Fiji  and  the  Fijiansy  pp.  35  f.,  161- 
166,  181  f. 


1 88  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

cannibalism.  '  The  common  people/  he  says  ^  eat  the 
arms,  buttocks,  and  trunk ;  but  the  chiefs  eat  the  head 
and  the  heart'  This  feast  was  of  a  religious  charac- 
ter." ^  Parkman  says,  of  the  "  hideous  scene  of  feast- 
ing [which]  followed  the  torture  of  a  prisoner,"  "  it 
was,  among  the  Hurons,  partly  an  act  of  vengeance, 
and  partly  a  religious  rite."  '^  He  cites  evidence,  also, 
that  there  was  cannibalism  among  the  Miamis,  where 
"  the  act  had  somewhat  of  a  religious  character  [and], 
was  attended  with  ceremonial  observances."  ^ 

Of  the  religious  basis  of  cannibalism  among  the 
primitive  peoples  of  Central  and  South  America,  stu- 
dents seem  agreed.  Dorman  who  has  carefully  col- 
lated important  facts  on  this  subject  from  varied  sources, 
and  has  considered  them  in  their  scientific  bearings, 
is  explicit  in  his  conclusions  at  this  point.  Reviewing 
all  the  American  field,  he  says :  "  I  have  dwelt  longer 
upon  the  painful  subject  of  cannibalism  than  might 
seem  desirable,  in  order  to  show  its  religious  character 
and  prevalence  everywhere.  Instead  of  being  confined 
to  savage  peoples,  as  is  generally  supposed,  it  prevailed 
to  a  greater  extent  and  with  more  horrible  rites  among 
the  most  civilized.  Its  religious  inception  was  the 
cause  of  this."  ^     Again,  he  says,  of  the  peoples  of 

^  Cited  in  Parkman's  Jesuits  in  No.  Am.,  p.  228,  note. 

'  3id.^  p.  xxxix.  3  Ibid.,  p.  xl.,  note. 

^Origin  of  Prim.  Supers.,  p.  151  f. 


VICTIMS  ON  THE  TABLES  OF  THE  GODS.    1 89 

Mexico  and  of  the  countries  south  of  it:  "All 
the  Nahua  nations  practised  this  religious  canni- 
balism. That  cannibalism  as  a  source  of  food,  un- 
connected with  religious  rites,  was  ever  practised, 
there  is  little  evidence.  Sahagun  and  Las  Casas  re- 
gard the  cannibalism  of  the  Nahuas  as  an  abhorrent 
feature  of  their  religion,  and  not  as  an  unnatural  ap- 
petite." ^ 

Reville,  treating  of  the  native  religions  of  Mexico 
and  Peru  comes  to  a  similar  conclusion  with  Dorman ; 
and  he  argues  that  the  state  of  things  which  was  there 
was  the  same  the  world  over,  so  far  as  it  related  to 
cannibalism.  "  Cannibalism,"  he  says,^  "which  is  now 
restricted  to  a  few  of  the  savage  tribes  who  have  re- 
mained closest  to  the  animal  life,  was  once  universal 
to  our  race.  For  no  one  would  ever  have  conceived 
the  idea  of  offering  to  the  gods  a  kind  of  food  which 
excited  nothing  but  disgust  and  horror."  In  this  sug- 
gestion, Reville  indicates  his  conviction  that  the  primal 
idea  of  an  altar  was  a  table  of  blood-bought  communion. 
"  Human  sacrifices  "  however,  he  goes  on  to  say,  "pre- 
vailed in  many  places  when  cannibalism  had  completely 
disappeared  from  the  habits  and  tastes  of  the  popula- 
tion. Thus  the  Semites  of  Western  Asia,  and  the 
f  ivaite  Hindus,  the  Celts,  and  some  of  the  populations 

^  Origin  of  Prim,  Supers.^  p.  150. 
2  Native  Relig.  in  Mex.  and  Ferti,  p.  75  f. 


190  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

of  Greece  and  Italy,  long  after  they  had  renounced 
cannibalism,  still  continued  to  sacrifice  human  beings 
to  their  deities."  And  he  might  have  added,  that  some 
savage  peoples  continued  cannibalism  when  the  relig- 
ious idea  of  its  beginning  had  been  almost  swept  away 
entirely  by  the  brutalism  of  its  inhuman  nature  and 
tendencies.  Referring  to  the  date  of  the  conquest  of 
Mexico,  he  says ;  "  Cannibalism,  in  ordinary  life,  was 
no  longer  practised.  The  city  of  Mexico  underwent 
all  the  horrors  of  famine  during  the  siege  conducted 
by  Fernando  Cortes.  When  the  Spaniards  finally  en- 
tered the  city,  they  found  the  streets  strewn  with 
corpses,  which  is  a  sufficient  proof  that  human  flesh 
was  not  eaten  even  in  dire  extremities.  And,  never- 
theless, the  Aztecs  not  only  pushed  human  sacrifices 
to  a  frantic  extreme,  but  they  were  ritual  cannibals^ 
that  is  to  say,  there  were  certain  occasions  on  which 
they  ate  the  flesh  of  the  human  victims  they  had 
immolated."  ^ 

And  as  it  was  in  India  and  in  America  and  in  the 
Islands  of  the  Sea ;  so  it  seems  to  have  been  wherever 
the  primitive  idea  of  cannibalism  as  a  prevalent  custom 
has  been  intelligently  sought  out.^ 


1  Native  Relig.  of  Mex.  and  Peru,  p.  76. 
2  See  references  to  cannibalism  as  a  religious  rite  among  the  Khonds 
of  Orissa,  the  people  of  Sumatra,  etc.,  in  Adams's  Curiosities  of  Super- 
stition. 


DRINKING    THE  BLOOD  OF  GRAPES.     19I 
7.   SYMBOLIC   SUBSTITUTES    FOR    BLOOD. 

As  the  primitive  and  more  natural  method  of  com- 
mingling bloods,  in  the  blood-covenant,  by  sucking 
each  other's  veins,  or  by  an  inter-transference  of 
blood  from  the  mutually  opened  veins,  was  in  many 
regions  superseded  by  the  symbolic  laving,  or  sprink- 
ling, or  anointing,  with  blood ;  and  as  the  blood  of  the 
lower  animals  was  often  substituted,  vicariously,  for 
human  blood ; — so  the  blood  and  wine  which  were 
commingled  for  mutual  drinking  in  the  covenant-rite, 
or  which  were  together  poured  out  in  libation,  when 
the  covenant  was  between  man  and  the  Deity,  came,  it 
would  appear,  to  be  represented,  in  many  cases,  by 
the  wine  alone.  First,  we  find  men  pledging  each 
other  in  a  sacred  covenant,  in  the  inter-drinking  of 
each  other's  blood  mingled  with  wine.  They  called 
their  covenant-draught,  "  assiratum,"  or  "  vinum  assira- 
tum  " ;  "  wine,  covenant-filled."  By  and  by,  appar- 
ently, they  came  to  count  simple  wine — "  the  blood  of 
grapes  "  ^ — as  the  representative  of  blood  and  wine,  in 
many  forms  of  covenanting. 

This  mutual  drinking,  as  a  covenant-pledge,  has  been 
continued  as  an  element  in  the  marriage  ceremony,  the 
world  over,  down  to  the  present  time.     It  would  even 

^Gen.  49:  II;  Deut.  32:  14;  Ecclesiasticus  39:  26;  50:  15; 
I  Mace.  6  :  34. 


192  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

seem  that  the  gradual  changes  in  the  methods  of  this 
symboHc  rite  could  be  tracked,  through  its  various 
forms  in  this  ceremony,  in  different  portions  of  the 
world.  Among  the  wide-spreading  'Anazeh  Bed'ween, 
the  pouring  out  of  a  blood  libation  is  still  the  mode 
of  completing  the  marriage-covenant.  "When  the 
marriage  day  is  fixed,"  says  Burckhardt,^  "  the  bride- 
groom comes  with  a  lamb  in  his  arms  to  the  tent  of 
the  father  of  his  bride,  and  then,  before  witnesses,  he 
cuts  its  throat.  As  soon  as  the  blood  falls  upon  the 
earth,  the  marriage  ceremony  is  regarded  as  com- 
plete." Among  the  Bed'ween  of  Sinai,  as  Palmer  tells 
us,^  the  bride  is  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  lamb, 
before  she  is  surrendered  to  the  bridegroom.  Lane's 
mention  of  the  prominence  of  outpoured  blood  at  the 
weddings  of  the  Copts  in  Cairo,  has  already  been 
cited.^  Among  the  Arabs,  since  the  days  of  Muham- 
mad, wine  has  been  generally  abjured,  and  coffee  now 
commonly  takes  its  place  as  a  drink,  in  all  ordinary 
conferences  for  covenanting. 

In  Borneo,  among  the  Dayaks,  the  bride  and  the 
bridegroom  sit  side  by  side,  facing  the  rising  sun.  Their 
parents  then  besprinkle  them  with  the  blood  of  some 
animal,  and  also  with  water.  "  Each  being  next  presented 
with  a  cup  of  arrack,  they  mutually  pour  half  into  each 

*  In  Beduinen  und  Wahaby,  p.  %b  f. 
^Desert  of  the  Exodus^  I.,  90.  ^  See  page  72,  supra. 


THE  FIXING  POINT  OF  THE  COMPACT.    1 93 

other's  cup,  take  a  draught,  and  exchange  vessels."  ^ 
In  Burmah,  among  the  Karens,  water  is  poured  upon 
the  bride  as  she  enters  the  bridegroom's  house.  When 
she  is  received  by  the  bridegroom,  "each  one  then 
gives  the  other  to  drink,  and  each  says  to  the  other, 
*  Be  faithful  to  thy  covenant.'  This  is  the  proper  mar- 
riage ceremony,  and  the  parties  are  now  married."  ^ 

The  blood  of  an  ox,  or  a  cow,  is  caused  to  flow  at 
the  door  of  the  bride's  house,  as  a  part  of  the  marriage 
ceremony,  in  Namaqua  Land.^  A  similar  custom 
prevails  among  the  Kafirs  of  Natal ;  and  an  observer 
has  said  of  this  blood-flowing,  in  the  covenanting 
rite:  "This  appears  to  be  the  fixing  point  of  the 
ceremony  "  ;  this  is  "  the  real  matrimonial  tie."  ^ 

Again  it  is  the  sharing  from  the  same  dish  in  drink- 
ing, as  well  as  in  eating,  that  the  bride  and  the  bride- 
groom covenant  in  marriage,  in  the  Feejee  Islands.^ 
The  liquor  that  is  made  the  common  draught,  as  a 
substitute  for  the  primitive  blood-potion,  is  commonly 
the  spirituous  drink  of  the  region  ;  whether  that  drink 
be  wine,  or  arrack,  or  whiskey,  or  beer.  The  symbol- 
ism is  the  same  in  every  case. 

^  Wood's  Wedding  Day,  p.  144. 
2  Mason,  in  Journ.  of  Asiat.  Soc.  of  Bengal,  Vol.  XXXV.,  Part  11.^ 
p.  17;  cited  in  Spencer's  Des.  Soc,  V,,  9. 

^  Andersson's  Lake  Ngami,  p.  220  f. 

*  Shooter's  Kafirs  of  Natal,  p.  77. 

^Williams  and  Calvert's  Fiji  and  the  Fijians,  p.  134. 

17 


194  ^^^  BLOOD  COVENANT, 

In  the  Sanskrit,  the  word  asrij  signifies  both  "blood," 
and  "saffron."*  In  the  Hindoo  wedding  ceremony, 
in  Malabar,  "  a  dish  of  a  liquid  like  blood,  made  of 
saffron  and  lime,"  is  held  over  the  heads  of  the  bride 
and  groom.  When  the  ceremony  is  concluded,  the 
newly  married  couple  sprinkle  the  spectators  with  this 
blood-like  mixture;^  which  seems,  indeed,  not  only 
here  but  in  many  other  cases,  in  India,  to  have  be- 
come a  substitute  for  the  covenanting  blood.  Refer- 
ence has  already  been  made  to  its  use  in  connection 
with  the  covenant  of  the  nose-ring ;  and  the  saffron 
colored  cord  of  the  wedding  necklace,  among  the  Brah- 
mans,  has  also  been  mentioned.^ 

A  still  more  remarkable  illustration  of  this  saffron 
mixture  in  lieu  of  blood,  in  formal  covenanting,  in 
India,  is  found  in  its  use  in  the  rite  of  "  adoption." 
In  India,  as  elsewhere  throughout  the  East,  the  desire 
of  every  parent  to  have  a  son  is  very  strong.  A  son 
is  longed  for,  to  inherit  the  parental  name  and  posses- 
sions, to  perform  the  funeral  rites  and  the  annual  cere- 
monies in  honor  of  his  parents ;  and,  indeed,  "  it  is 
said  in  the  Dattaka-Mimansa,  '  Heaven  awaits  not  one 
who  is  destitute  of  a  son.' "  When,  therefore,  parents 
have  not  a  son  of  their  own,  they  often  formally  adopt 
one;  and,  in  this   ceremony,  saffron-water  seems   to 

^  See  Monier  Williams's  Sanskrit  Dictionary,  s.  v. 
2  See  Pike's  Sub-  Tropical  Rambles^  p.  1 98.     '  See  pages  7  7, 1 65 ,  supra. 


WATER-OF-SAFFRON  CHILDREN.  195 

take  the  place  of  blood,  in  the  sacred  and  indissoluble 
covenant  of  transfer.^  So  prominent  indeed  is  this 
element  of  the  saffron-water  drinking — ^as  the  substi- 
tute for  blood-drinking — in  the  covenant  of  adoption, 
that  the  adopted  children  of  parents  are  commonly- 
spoken  of  as  their  "  water-of-saffron  children."  "  Is 
it  good  to  adopt  the  child,  and  ^\n^  it  saffron-water  ?  " 
is  a  question  that  "  occurs  eight  times  in  the  book  of 
fate  called  Saga-thevan-sasteram."  Formal  sacrifices 
precede  the  ceremony  of  adoption,  and  mutual  feast- 
ing follows  it.  The  natural  mother  of  the  child,  in 
his  transfer  to  his  new  parents  by  adoption,  hands 
with  him  a  dish  of  consecrated  saffron-water;  and 
both  the  child  and  the  blood-symbol  are  received  by 
the  adopting  father,  with  his  declaration  that  the  son  is 
now  to  enter  into  all  that  belongs  to  that  father. 
"  Then  he  and  his  wife,  pouring  a  little  saffron  water 
into  the  hollow  of  their  hands,  and  dropping  a  little 
into  that  of  the  adoptive  child,  pronounce  aloud  be- 
fore the  assembly:  *We  have  acquired  this  child  to 
our  stem,  and  we  incorporate  him  into  it'  Upon 
which  they  drink  the  saffron-water,  and  rising  up, 
make  a  profound  obeisance  to  the  assembly  ;  to  which 
the  officiating  Brahmans  reply  by  the  word,  '  Asirva- 

^This  Oriental  custom  gives  an  added  meaning  to  the  suggestion, 
that  Christ  was  sent  to  bring  us  to  his  Father,  "  that  we  might  receive 
the  adoption  of  sons  "  (Gal.  4:5). 


196  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

dam.'  "  *  It  seems  to  me  in  every  way  probable,  that 
in  primitive  times  the  blood  of  the  child  adopted,  and 
of  the  parents  adopting  him,  was  partaken  of  by  the 
three  parties  (as  now  throughout  the  East,  in  the  case 
of  the  blood-covenanting  of  friends),  in  order  that  the 
child  and  his  new  parents  might  be  literally  of  one 
blood.  But,  with  the  prejudice  which  grew  up  against 
blood-drinking,  in  India,  the  saffron-water  came  to  be 
used  as  a  substitute  for  blood ;  even  as  the  blood  of 
the  grape  came  to  be  used  instead  of  human  blood,  in 
many  other  portions  of  the  world. 

In  China,  an  important  rite  in  the  marriage  cere- 
mony is  the  drinking  of  "  the  wedding  wine,"  from 
"  two  singularly  shaped  goblets,  sometimes  connected 
together  by  a  red  silk,  or  red  cotton,  cord,  several 
feet  long."  After  their  worship  of  their  ancestral 
tablets,  the  bride  and  the  bridegroom  stand  face  to 
face.  "  One  of  the  female  assistants  takes  the  two 
goblets  .  .  .  from  the  table,  and  having  partially 
filled  them  with  a  mixture  of  wine  and  honey,  she 
pours  some  of  their  contents  from  one  [goblet]  into 
the  other,  back  and  forth  several  times.  She  then 
holds  one  to  the  mouth  of  the  groom,  and  the  other  to 

*  The  citations  above  made  are  from  Roberts's  Oriental  Jllttstrations 
of  the  Scriptures f  p.  574,  and  from  Dubois's  Des.  of  Man.  and  Cust. 
of  Indiay  Part  II.,  chap.  22 ;  the  latter  being  from  the  Directory  or 
Ritual  of  the  Purohitas. 


A   WELCOMING   CUP.  1 97 

the  mouth  of  the  bride ;  who  continue  to  face  each 
other,  and  who  then  sip  a  Httle  of  the  wine.  She 
then  changes  the  goblets,  and  the  bride  sips  out  of  the 
one  just  used  by  the  groom,  and  the  groom  sips  out 
of  the  one  just  used  by  the  bride,  the  goblets  often- 
times remaining  tied  together  [by  the  red  cord]. 
Sometimes  she  uses  one  goblet  [interchanging  its  use 
between  the  two  parties]  in  giving  the  wine."^  The 
Rev.  Chester  Holcombe,  who  has  been  a  missionary 
in  China  for  a  dozen  years  or  more,  writes  me  explicitly : 
"  I  have  been  told  that  in  ancient  times  blood  was  act- 
ually used  instead  of  the  wine  now  used  as  a  substi- 
tute," in  this  wedding-cup  of  covenanting. 

Again,  Professor  Douglas  says,^  that  for  a  thousand 
years  or  so,  it  has  been  claimed  that,  at  the  birth  of 
each  two  persons  who  are  to  be  married,  the  red  cord 
invisibly  binds  their  feet  together;  which  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  their  lives  are  divinely  inter-linked, 
as  by  the  covenant  of  blood. 

In  Central  America,  among  the  Chibchas,  it  was  a 
primitive  custom  for  the  bridegroom  to  present  him- 
self by  night,  after  preliminary  bargainings,  at  the 
door  of  his  intended  father-in-law's  home,  and  there 
let  his  presence  be  known.  Then  the  bride  would 
come  out  to  him,  bringing  a  large  gourd  of  chica,  a 
fermented  drink  made  from  the  juice  of  Indian  corn; 

1  Doolittle's  Social  Life  of  the  ChinesCy  I.,  85-87.      «  China^  p.  72  f. 
17* 


198  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

"  and  coming  close  to  him,  she  first  tasted  it  herself, 
and  then  gave  it  to  him.  He  drank  as  much  as  he 
could;  and  thus  the  marriage  was  concluded."^ 
Among  the  Bheels  of  India,  the  drinking  of  the  cove- 
nant is  between  the  representatives  of  the  bridegroom, 
and  the  parents  of  the  bride,  at  the  time  of  the  be- 
trothal ;  but  this  is  quite  consistent  with  the  fact  that 
the  bride  herself  is  not  supposed  to  have  a  primary 
part  in  the  covenant.^  It  is  much  the  same  also  among 
the  Laplanders.^ 

Among  the  Georgians  and  Circassians,''  and  also 
among  the  Russians,^  the  officiating  priest,  at  a  mar- 
riage ceremony,  drinks  from  a  glass  of  wine,  and  then 
the  bride  and  the  groom  drink  three  times,  each,  from 
the  same  glass.  The  Galatians  wedded,  with  a  pocu- 
lum  conjugii,  "  a  wedding  cup."  ^  In  Greece,  the  mar- 
riage ceremony  concludes  by  the  bride  and  the  groom 
"drinking  wine  out  of  one  cup." ^  In  Switzerland^ 
formerly,  the  clergymen  "  took  two  glasses  of  wine, 
mixed  their  contents,  and  gave  one  glass  to  the  bride, 

^  Piedrahita's  Hist,  New  Granada,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  6;  cited  in  Spencer's 
Des.  Soc,  II.,  34. 

*  Malcolm,  in  Trans.  Royal  Asiat.  Soc,  I.,  ^y,  cited  in  Spencer's 
Des.  Soc,  v.,  8. 

*  Wood's  Wedding  Day,  p.  142.  *  3id.,  p.  66  f. 

*  Jbid.,  p.  124  f.     ^  Rous  and  Bogan's  Archceologice  Attic ae,  p.  1 67. 

'  Wood's  Wedding  Day,  pp.  36,  39. 


THE  AGREEMENT  BOTTLE.  199 

and  the  other  to  the  bridegroom."  ^  Among  European 
Jews  in  olden  time,  the  officiating  rabbi,  having  blessed 
a  glass  of  wine,  tasted  it  himself,  and  then  gave  it  first 
to  the  one  and  then  to  the  other  of  the  parties  cove- 
nanting in  marriage.^ 

This  custom  of  covenanting  in  the  wine-cup,  at  a 
wedding,  is  said  to  have  come  into  England  from  the 
ancient  Goths.^  Its  symbolical  significance  and  its 
exceptional  importance,  seems  to  have  been  generally- 
recognized.  Ben  Jonson  calls  the  wedding-wine  a 
"  knitting  cup  "  ^ — an  inter-binding  cup.  And  a  later 
poet  asks,  forcefully : 

"What  priest  can  join  two  lovers'  hands. 
But  wine  must  seal  the  marriage  bands  ?  "  ^ 

In  Ireland,  as  in  Lapland  and  in  India,  it  was  at  the 
betrothal,  instead  of  at  the  wedding,  that  the  covenant- 
ing-cup — or  the  "  agreement  bottle  "  as  it  was  called — 
was  shared ;  and  not  unnaturally  strong  usquebaugh, 
or  "  water  of  life,"  was  there  substituted  for  wine — as 
the  representative  of  life-blood.^ 

In  Scotland,  as  in  Arabia  and  in  Borneo,  the  use  of 
blood  in  conjunction  with  the  use  of  a  wedding-cup 
has  continued  down  to  recent  times.  The  "  agree- 
ment bottle,"  or  "  the  bottling,"  as  it  was  sometimes 
called,  preceded  the  wedding  ceremony  proper.     At 

1  Wood's  Wedding  Day,  p.  151.  ^  Ibid.,  pp.  22,  23. 

» Ibid.y  p.  247.      *  Ibid.,  p.  247.      ^  Ibid.,  p.  248.       « Ibid.,  p.  173. 


200  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

the  wedding,  the  blood  of  a  cock  was  shed  at  the 
covenanting  feast.  A  reference  to  this  is  found  in 
"  The  Wowing  [the  Wooing  or  the  Vowing  ?]  of  Jok 
and  Jynny,"  among  the  most  ancient  remains  of  Scot- 
tish minstrelsy : 

"  Jok  tuk  Jynny  be  the  hand, 

And  cryd  ane  feist,  and  slew  ane  cok, 
And  maid  a  brydell  up  alland ; 

Now  haif  I  gottin  your  Jynny,  quoth  Jok."  ^ 

Among  the  ancient  Romans,  as  also  among  the 
Greeks,  the  outpouring  of  sacrificial  blood,  and  the 
mutual  drinking  of  wine,  were  closely  linked,  in  the 
marriage  ceremony.  When  the  substitute  victim  was 
ready  for  slaying,  "  the  soothsayer  drank  wine  out  of 
an  earthen,  or  wooden,  chalice,  called  in  Latin,  simpu- 
lum,  or  simpuvium.  It  was  in  fashion  much  like  our 
ewers,  when  we  pour  water  into  the  basin.  This  cha- 
lice was  afterward  carried  about  to  all  the  people,  that 
they  also  might  libare,  that  is,  lightly  taste  thereof; 
which  rite  hath  been  called  libation."  The  remainder 
of  the  wine  from  the  chalice  was  poured  on  to  the 
victim,  which  was  then  slain ;  its  blood  being  carefully 
preserved.  And  these  ceremonies  preceded  the  mar- 
riage feast.^  The  wedding  wine-drinking  is  now,  how- 
ever, all  that  remains  of  them. 

1  Ross's  The  Book  of  Scottish  Poems j  I.,  2 1 8. 
2  Godwyn's  Rom.  Historiae,  p.  66  f. 


DRINKING  HEALTHS.  20I 

Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  the  common  custom  of 
"  drinking  healths,"  or  of  persons  "  pledging  "  each 
other  in  a  glass  of  wine,  is  but  a  degenerate  modifica- 
tion, or  a  latest  vestige,  of  the  primitive  rite  of  cove- 
nanting in  a  sacred  friendship,  by  means  of  commin- 
gled bloods  shared  in  a  wine-cup.  Certainly  this  cus- 
tom prevailed  among  the  old  Norsemen,  and  among 
the  ancient  Romans  and  Greeks.  That  it  originally 
included  an  idea  of  a  possible  covenant  with  Deity, 
and  of  a  spiritual  fellowship,  is  indicated  in  the  fact 
that  "  the  old  Northmen  drank  the '  minni  *  [the  loving 
friendship]  of  Thor,  Odin,  and  Freya ;  and  of  kings, 
likewise,  at  their  funerals."  So  again  there  were 
"  such  formulas  as  *  God's  minnie ! '  [and]  '  A  bowl  to 
God  in  heaven  ! '  "  ^ 

The  earlier  method  of  this  ceremony  of  pledging 
each  other  in  wine,  was  by  all  the  participants  drink- 
ing, in  turn,  out  of  a  common  bowl ;  as  Catiline  and 
his  fellow-conspirators  drank  their  blood  and  wine  in 
mutual  covenant ;  and  as  the  Romans  drank  at  a  wed- 
ding service.  In  the  Norseland,  to-day,  this  custom 
is  continued  by  the  use  of  a  drinking-bowl,  marked  by 
pegs  for  the  individual  potation ;  each  man  as  he  re- 
ceives it,  on  its  round,  being  expected  to  "  drink  his 
peg."  And  even  among  the  English  and  the  Ameri- 
cans, as  well  as  among  the  Germans,  the  touching  of 

1  Tylor's  Prim.  Cult.y  I.,  85-97. 


202  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

two  glasses  together,  in  this  health-pledging,  is  a  com- 
mon custom ;  as  if  in  symbolism  of  a  community  in 
the  contents  of  the  two  cups.  As  often,  then,  as  we 
drink  each  other's  healths,  or  as  we  respond  to  any 
call  for  a  common  toast-drinking,  we  do  show  a  ves- 
tige of  the  primeval  and  the  ever  sacred  mutual  cove- 
nanting in  blood. 

8.    BLOOD-COVENANT     INVOLVINGS. 

And  now  that  we  have  before  us  this  extended  array 
of  related  facts,  concerning  the  sacred  uses  and  the 
popular  estimates  of  blood,  in  all  the  ages,  it  will  be 
well  for  us  to  consider  what  we  have  learned,  in  the 
line  of  blood-rights  and  of  blood-customs,  and  in 
the  direction  of  their  religious  involvings.  Especially 
is  it  important  for  us  to  see,  where  and  how  all  this 
bears  on  the  primitive  and  the  still  extant  ceremony 
of  covenanting  by  blood,  with  which  we  started  in  this 
investigation. 

From  the  beginning,  and  everywhere,  blood  seems 
to  have  been  looked  upon  as  preeminently  the  repre- 
sentative of  life ;  as,  indeed,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  life 
itself.  The  transference  of  blood  from  one  organism  to 
another,  has  been  counted  the  transference  of  life,  with 
all  that  life  includes.  The  inter-commingling  of  blood  by 
its  inter-transference,  has  been  understood  as  equivalent 
to  an  inter-commingling  of  natures.     Two  natures  thus 


THE   TEACHINGS  OF  THIS  RITE.         203 

inter-commingled,  by  the  inter-commingling  of  blood, 
have  been  considered  as  forming,  thenceforward,  one 
blood,  one  life,  one  nature,  one  soul — in  two  organisms. 
The  inter-commingling  of  natures,  by  the  inter-com- 
mingling of  blood,  has  been  deemed  possible  between 
man  and  a  lower  organism ;  and  between  man  and  a 
higher  organism, — even  between  man  and  Deity,  act- 
ually or  by  symbol ; — as  well  as  between  man  and  his 
immediate  fellow. 

The  mode  of  inter-transference  of  blood,  with  all 
that  this  carries,  has  been  deemed  practicable,  alike  by 
way  of  the  lips,  and  by  way  of  the  opened  and  inter- 
flowing veins.  It  has  been  also  represented,  by  blood- 
bathing,  by  blood-anointing,  and  by  blood-sprinkling ; 
or,  again,  by  the  inter-drinking  of  wine — which  was 
formerly  commingled  with  blood  itself  in  the  drink- 
ing. And  the  yielding  of  one's  life  by  the  yielding  of 
one's  blood  has  often  been  represented  by  the  yielding 
of  the  blood  of  a  chosen  and  a  suitable  substitute. 
Similarly  the  blood,  or  the  nature,  of  divinities,  has 
been  represented,  vicariously,  in  divine  covenanting, 
by  the  blood  of  a  devoted  and  an  accepted  substitute. 
Inter-communion  between  the  parties  in  a  blood-cove- 
nant, has  been  a  recognized  privilege,  in  conjunction 
with  any  and  every  observance  of  the  rite  of  blood- 
covenanting.  And  the  body  of  the  divinely  accepted 
offering,  the  blood  of  which  is  a  means  of  divine-hu- 


204  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

man  inter-union,  has  been  counted  a  very  part  of  the 
divinity ;  and  to  partake  of  that  body  as  food  has  been 
deemed  equivalent  to  being  nourished  by  the  very 
divinity  himself 

Blood,  as  life,  has  been  looked  upon  as  belonging, 
in  the  highest  sense,  to  the  Author  of  all  life.  The 
taking  of  life  has  been  seen  to  be  the  prerogative  of 
its  Author ;  and  only  he  who  is  duly  empowered,  for 
a  season  and  for  a  reason,  by  that  Author,  for  blood- 
taking  in  any  case,  has  been  supposed  to  have  the 
right  to  the  temporary  exercise  of  that  prerogative. 
Even  then,  the  blood,  as  the  life,  must  be  employed 
under  the  immediate  direction  and  oversight  of  its 
Author.  The  heart  of  any  Hving  organism,  as  the  blood- 
source  and  the  blood-fountain,  has  been  recognized  as 
the  representative  of  its  owner's  highest  personality ; 
and  as  the  dififuser  of  the  issues  of  his  life  and  nature. 

A  covenant  of  blood,  a  covenant  made  by  the  inter- 
commingling  of  blood,  has  been  recognized  as  the 
closest,  the  holiest,  and  the  most  indissoluble,  compact 
conceivable.  Such  a  covenant  clearly  involves  an  ab- 
solute surrender  of  one's  separate  self,  and  an  irrevo- 
cable merging  of  one's  individual  nature  into  the  dual, 
or  the  multiplied,  personality  included  in  the  compact. 
Man's  highest  and  noblest  outreachings  of  soul  have, 
therefore,  been  for  such  a  union  with  the  divine  nature, 
as  is  typified  in  this  human  covenant  of  blood. 


ORIGIN  OF  RELIGIOUS  SYMBOLS.         205 

How  it  came  to  pass,  that  men  everywhere  were  so 
generally  agreed  on  the  main  symbols  of  their  religious 
yearnings  and  their  religious  hopes,  in  this  realm  of 
their  aspirations,  is  a  question  which  obviously  admits 
of  two  possible  answers.  A  common  revelation  from 
God,  may  have  been  given  to  primitive  man ;  and  all 
these  varying  yet  related  indications  of  religious  striv- 
ings and  aim,  may  be  but  the  perverted  remains  of  the 
lessons  of  that  misused,  or  slighted,  revelation.  On 
the  other  hand,  God  may  originally  have  implanted 
the  germs  of  a  common  religious  thought  in  the 
mind  of  man,  and  then  have  adapted  his  successive 
revelations  to  the  outworking  of  those  germs.  Which 
ever  view  of  the  probable  origin  of  these  common 
symbolisms,  all  the  world  over,  be  adopted  by  any 
Christian  student,  the  importance  of  the  symbolisms 
themselves,  in  their  relation  to  the  truths  of  revelation, 
is  manifestly  the  same. 

On  this  point,  Kurtz  has  said,  forcefully :  "A  com- 
parison of  the  religious  symbols  of  the  Old  Testament 
with  those  of  ancient  heathendom,  shows  that  the 
ground  and  the  starting  point  of  those  forms  of  relig- 
ion which  found  their  appropriate  expressions  in 
symbols,  was  the  same  in  all  cases ;  while  the  history 
of  civilization  proves  that  on  this  point,  priority  cannot 
be  claimed  by  the  Israelites.     But  when   instituting 

such  an  inquiry,  we  shall  also  find  that  the  symbols 

18 


2o6  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

which  were  transferred  from  the  reHgions  of  nature  to 
that  of  the  spirit,  first  passed  through  the  fire  of  divine 
purification,  from  which  they  issued  as  the  distinctive 
theology  of  the  Jews  ;  the  dross  of  a  pantheistic  deifi- 
cation of  nature  having  been  consumed."  ^  And  as 
to  even  the  grosser  errors,  and  the  more  pitiable  per- 
versions of  the  right,  in  the  use  of  these  world-wide 
religious  symbolisms,  Kurtz  says,  again :  "  Every  error, 
however  dangerous,  is  based  on  some  truth  misunder- 
stood, and  .  .  .  every  aberration,  however  grievous, 
has  started  from  a  desire  after  real  good,  which  had 
not  attained  its  goal,  because  the  latter  was  sought 
neither  in  the  right  way,  nor  by  right  means."  ^  To 
recognize  these  truths  concerning  the  outside  religions 
of  the  world,  gives  us  an  added  fitness  for  the  com- 
parison of  the  symbolisms  we  have  just  been  consider- 
ing, with  the  teachings  of  the  sacred  pages  of  revela- 
tion, on  the  specific  truths  involved. 

Proofs  of  the  existence  of  this  rite  of  blood-covenant- 
ing, have  been  found  among  primitive  peoples  of  all 
quarters  of  the  globe ;  and  its  antiquity  is  carried  back 
to  a  date  long  prior  to  the  days  of  Abraham.  All  this, 
outside  of  any  indications  of  the  rite  in  the  text  of 
Bible  itself  And  now  we  are  in  a  position  to  turn 
intelligently  to  that  text  for  fuller  light  on  the  subject. 

1  Kurtz's  History  of  the  Old  Covenanty  I.,  235.  *7J«V/.,  I.,  268. 


LECTURE  III. 
INDICATIONS  OF  THE  RITE  IN  THE  BIBLE. 


III. 

INDICATIONS  OF  THE  RITE  IN  THE  BIBLE. 


I.   LIMITATIONS   OF   INQUIRY. 

And  now,  before  entering  upon  an  examination  of 
the  Bible  text,  in  the  light  of  these  disclosures  of 
primitive  and  universal  customs,  it  may  be  well  for  me 
to  say,  that  I  purpose  no  attempt  to  include  or  to  ex- 
plain all  the  philosophy  of  sacrifice,  and  of  the  involved 
atonement.  All  my  thought  is,  to  ascertain  what  new 
meaning,  if  any,  is  found  in  the  Bible  teachings  con- 
cerning the  uses  and  the  symbolism  of  blood,  through 
our  better  understanding  of  the  prevailing  idea,  among 
the  peoples  of  the  ancient  world,  that  blood  represents 
life ;  that  the  giving  of  blood  represents  the  giving  of 
life ;  that  the  receiving  of  blood  represents  the  receiv- 
ing of  life ;  that  the  inter-commingling  of  blood  rep- 
resents the  inter-commingling  of  natures ;  and  that 
a  divine-human  inter-union  through  blood  is  the  basis 
of  a  divine-human  inter-communion,  in  the  sharing 

of  the  flesh  of  the  sacrificial  offering  as  sacred  food. 

1 8*  209 


210  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Whatever  other  Bible  teachings  there  are,  beyond 
these,  as  to  the  meanings  of  sacrifice,  or  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  atonement,  it  is  not  my  purpose,  in  this 
investigation,  to  consider. 

In  the  days  of  Moses,  when  the  Pentateuch  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  prepared,  there  were — as  we  have 
already  found — certain  well-defined  views,  the  world 
over,  concerning  the  sacredness  of  blood,  and  concern- 
ing the  methods,  the  involvings,  and  the  symbolisms, 
of  the  covenant  of  blood.  This  being  so,  we  are  not 
to  look  to  the  Bible  record,  as  it  stands,  for  the  orig- 
inal institution  of  every  rite  and  ceremony  connected 
with  blood-shedding,  blood-guarding,  and  blood-using  ; 
but  we  may  fairly  look  at  every  Bible  reference  to 
blood,  in  the  light  of  the  primitive  customs  known  to 
have  prevailed  in  the  days  of  the  Bible  writing. 

2.   PRIMITIVE  TEACHINGS   OF   BLOOD. 

The  earliest  implied  reference  to  blood  in  the  Bible 
text,  is  the  record  of  Abel's  sacrifice.  "And  Abel  was 
a  keeper  of  sheep,  but  Cain  was  a  tiller  of  the  ground. 
And  in  process  of  time  it  came  to  pass  that  Cain 
brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  offering  unto 
the  Lord.  And  Abel,  he  also  brought  of  the  firstlings 
of  his  flock  and  of  the  fat  thereof  And  the  Lord  had 
respect  unto  Abel  and  to  his  offering ;  but  unto  Cain 


ABEUS  PROFFER  OF  HIMSELF  TO  GOD.     2 1 1 

and  to  his  offering  he  had  not  respect."  ^  An  inspired 
comment  on  this  incident  is :  "  By  faith  Abel  offered 
unto  God  a  more  excellent  sacrifice  than  Cain,  through 
which  he  had  witness  borne  to  him  that  he  was  right- 
eous, God  bearing  witness  in  respect  of  [or,  over]  his 
gifts  :  and  through  it  he  [Abel]  being  dead  yet  speak- 
eth."2 

Now,  on  the  face  of  it,  in  the  light  of  all  that  we 
know  of  primitive  customs  in  this  matter  of  the  blood- 
covenant,  and  apart  from  any  added  teachings  in  the 
Bible  concerning  the  nature  and  meanings  of  different 
sacrifices,  this  narrative  shows  Abel,  lovingly  and 
trustfully  reaching  out  toward  God  with  substitute 
blood,  in  order  to  be  in  covenant  oneness  with  God  ; 
while  Cain  merely  proffers  a  gift  from  his  earthly  pos- 
sessions. Abel  so  trusts  God,  that  he  gives  himself 
to  him.  Cain  defers  to  God  sufficiently  to  make  a 
present  to  him.  The  one  shows  unbounded  faith  ;  the 
other  shows  a  measure  of  affectionate  reverence.  It  is 
the  same  practical  difference  as  that  which  distinguished 
Ruth  from  Orpah,  when  the  testing  time  of  their  love 
for  their  mother-in-law,  Naomi,  had  come  to  them 
alike.  "And  Orpah  kissed  her  mother-in-law;  but 
Ruth  clave  unto  her."  ^  No  wonder  that  God  counted 
Abel's  unstinted  proffer  of  himself,  in  faith,  an  accept- 
able sacrifice,  and  received  it,  as  in  inter-communion 

iGen.  4 :  2-5.  « Heb.  11:4.  «Ruth  i :  14. 


212  777^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

on  the  basis  of  inter-union ;  while  Cain's  paltry  gift, 
without  any  proffer  of  himself,  won  no  approval  from 
the  Lord. 

Then  there  followed  the  unhallowed  shedding  of 
Abel's  blood  by  Cain,  and  the  crying  out,  as  it  were, 
of  the  spilled  life  of  Abel  unto  its  Divine  Author.^ 
"  The  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me  from 
the  ground,"  said  the  Lord,  to  the  guilty  spiller  of 
blood.  "And  now  cursed  art  thou  from  the  ground, 
which  hath  opened  her  mouth  to  receive  thy  brother's 
blood  from  thy  hand."  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  blood 
is  preeminently  the  life ;  and  even  when  poured  out 
on  the  earth,  the  blood  does  not  lose  its  vitality.  It 
still  has  its  intelligent  relations  to  its  Author  and 
Guardian ;  ^  as  the  world  has  been  accustomed  to 
count  a  possibility,  down  to  modern  times.^ 

After  the  destruction  of  mankind  by  the  deluge, 
when  God  would  begin  anew,  as  it  were,  by  the  re- 
vivifying of  the  world,  through  the  vestige  of  blood — 
of  life — ^preserved  in  the  ark,^  he  laid  new  emphasis 
on  the  sacredness  of  blood,  as  the  representative  of 

^Gen.  4:  10,  II. 

'  "  For  it  must  be  observed,  that  by  the  outpouring  of  the  blood,  the 
life  which  was  in  it  was  not  destroyed,  though  it  was  separated  from 
the  organism  which  before  it  had  quickened  :  Gen.  4 :  10 ;  comp.  Heb. 
12:  24  (Trapa  rhv  'A^eA) ;  .Apoc.  6:  lo"  (Westcott's  Epistles  of  St. 
John,  p.  34). 

•See  pages  143-147,  supra.  *  See  pages  110-113,  supra. 


A  NEW  COVENANT  WITH  NOAH.  213 

that  life  which  is  the  essence  of  God  himself  Noah's 
first  act,  on  coming  out  from  the  ark,  was  to  proffer 
himself  and  all  living  flesh,  in  a  fresh  blood-covenant 
with  the  Lord.  "And  Noah  builded  an  altar  unto  the 
Lord ;  and  took  of  every  clean  beast,  and  of  every 
clean  fowl,  and  offered  burnt  offerings  on  the  altar."  ^ 
From  all  that  we  know  of  the  method  of  the  burnt- 
offering,  either  from  the  Bible-text  or  from  outside 
sources,  it  has,  from  the  beginning,  included  the  pre- 
liminary offering  of  the  blood — as  the  life — to  Deity, 
by  its  outpouring,  around,  or  upon,  the  altar,  with  or 
without  the  accompaniment  of  libations  of  wine ;  or, 
again,  by  its  sprinkling  upon  the  altar? 

It  was  then,  when  the  spirit  of  Noah,  in  this  cove- 
nant-seeking by  blood,  was  recognized  approvingly  by 
the  Lord,  that  the  Lord  smelled  the  sweet  savor  of 
the  proffered  offering, — "  the  savor  of  satisfaction,  or  de- 
lectation," ^  to  him,  was  in  it, — and  he  established  a  new 
covenant  with  Noah,  giving  commandment  anew  con- 
cerning the  never-failing  sacredness  of  blood :  "  Every 
moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  food  for  you ;  as  [freely 
as]  the  green  herb,  have  I  given  you  all  [flesh].  But 
flesh  with  the  life  thereof,  which  is  the  blood  thereof 

1  Gen.  8 :  20. 
'Exod.  24:  5,  6;  29:  15-25;  Lev.  i:  1-6,  ia-12,  14,  15;  8:  18, 
19,  etc.     See  also  pages  102,  106-109,  supra. 

*  See  Speaker's  Commentary ^  in  loco. 


214  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

[flesh  with  the  blood  in  it],  shall  ye  not  eat.  And 
surely  your  blood,  the  blood  of  your  lives,  will  I  re- 
quire ;  at  the  hand  of  every  beast  will  I  require  it : 
and  at  the  hand  of  man,  even  at  the  hand  of  every 
man's  brother,  will  I  require  the  life  of  man.  Whoso 
sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed : 
for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man."^  Here,  the 
blood  of  even  those  animals  whose  flesh  might  be 
eaten  by  man,  is  forbidden  for  food :  because  it  is  life 
itself,  and  therefore  sacred  to  the  Author  of  life.^  And 
the  blood  of  man  must  not  be  shed  by  man, — except 
where  man  is  made  God's  minister  of  justice, — ^because 
man  is  formed  in  the  image  of  God,  and  only  God  has 
a  right  to  take  away — directly  or  by  his  minister — the 
life,  from  one  bearing  God's  likeness. 

And  this  injunction,  together  with  this  covenant, 
preceded  the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses;  and  it  sur- 
vived that  law,  as  well.  When  the  question  came  up 
in  the  apostolic  conference  at  Jerusalem,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  visit  of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  concerning  the 
duty  of  Gentile  Christians  to  the  Mosaic  ceremonial 
law,  the  decision  was  explicit,  that  while  nothing 
which  was  of  that  ritual  alone  should  be  imposed  as 
obligatory  on  the  new  believers,  those  essential  ele- 

1  Gen.  9  :  3-6. 
2  "  A  man  might  not  use  another's  life  for  the  support  of  his  physical 
life"  (Westcott's  Epistles  of  St.  John,  p.  34). 


A  PERPETUAL   OBLIGATION.  215 

ments  of  religious  observance  which  were  prior  to 
Moses,  and  which  were  not  done  away  with  in  Christ, 
should  be  emphasized  in  all  the  extending  domain  of 
Christianity.  Spirituality  in  worship,  personal  purity, 
and  the  holding  sacred  to  God,  all  blood — or  life — as 
the  gift  of  God,  and  as  the  means  of  communion  with 
God,  must  never  be  ignored  in  the  realm  of  Christian 
duty.  *'  Write  unto  them,  that  they  abstain  from  the 
pollutions  of  idols,  and  from  fornication,  and  from 
what  is  strangled,  and  from  blood,"  ^  said  the  Apostle 
James,  in  announcing  the  decision  of  this  conference ; 
and  the  circular  letter  to  the  Gentile  churches  was 
framed  accordingly.  Nor  does  this  commandment  seem 
ever  to  have  been  abrogated,  in  letter  or  in  spirit.  How- 
ever poorly  observed  by  Christians,  it  stands  to-day  as  it 
stood  in  the  days  of  Paul,  and  in  the  days  of  Noah,  a  per- 
petual obligation,  with  all  its  manifold  teachings  of  the 
blessed  benefits  of  the  covenant  of  blood.^ 

3.   THE    BLOOD    COVENANT    IN    CIRCUMCISION. 

Again  the  Lord  made  a  new  beginning  for  the  race, 
in  his  start  with  Abraham,  as  the  father  of  a  chosen 

1  See  Acts  15  :  2-29 ;  also  21 :  18-25. 
'  Those,  indeed,  who  would  put  the  dictum  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
above  the  explicit  commands  of  the  Bible,  can  claim  that  that  Church 
has  affirmed  the  mere  temporary  nature  of  this  obligation,  which  the 
Bible  makes  perpetual.  But  apart  from  this,  there  seems  to  be  no  show 
of  justification  for  the  abrogation,  or  the  suspension,  of  the  command. 


2l6  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

and  peculiar  people  in  the  world.  And  again  the 
covenant  of  blood,  or  the  covenant  of  strong-friend- 
ship as  it  is  still  called  in  the  East,  was  the  prominent 
feature  in  this  beginning.  The  Apostle  James  says, 
that  "Abraham  .  .  .  was  called  the  friend  of 
God."  ^  God  himself,  speaking  through  Isaiah,  refers 
to  Abraham,  as  "  Abraham  my  friend  "  ;  ^  and  Jehosha- 
phat,  in  his  extremity,  calling  upon  God  for  help, 
speaks  of  "  Abraham,  thy  friend."  ^  And  this  applica- 
tion of  the  term  "  friend  "  to  any  human  being,  in  his 
relations  to  God,  is  absolutely  unique  in  the  case  of 
Abraham,  in  all  the  Old  Testament  record.  Abraham, 
and  only  Abraham,  was  called  "  the  friend  of  God."  * 
Yet  the  immediate  narrative  of  Abraham's  relations  to 
God,  makes  no  specific  mention  of  this  unique  term 
"  friend,"  as  being  then  applied  to  Abraham.  It  is 
only  as  we  recognize  the  primitive  rite  of  blood- 
friendship  in  the  incidents  of  that  narrative,  that  we 
perceive  clearly  why  and  how  God's  covenant  with 
Abraham  was  preeminently  a  covenant  of  friendship. 
"  I  will  make  ^  my  covenant  between  me  and  thee, 

*  James  2:  23.  2jsaiah4i:  8.  '2Chron.  20:  7. 

*  The  only  instance  in  which  it  might  seem  that  there  was  an  excep- 
tion to  this  statement,  is  Exodus  33 :  11,  where  it  is  said,  "  The  Lord 
spake  unto  Moses  face  to  face,  as  a  man  speaketh  unto  his  friend." 
But  here  the  Hebrew  word  is  r^a  (^1)  with  the  idea  of  "  a  compan- 
ion," or  "a  neighbor";  while  the  word  applied  to  Abraham  is  ohebh 
(3ni<J,  "  a  loving  one."  *  See  Appendix,  infra^  p.  322. 


THE  FRIEND  OF  GOD.  2  I  7 

and  will  multiply  thee  exceedingly,"  said  the  Lord  to 
Abraham.^  And  again,  "  I  will  establish  my  covenant 
between  me  and  thee  and  thy  seed  after  thee  through- 
out their  generations  for  an  everlasting  covenant,  to 
be  a  God  unto  thee ;  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee  .  .  . 
And  as  for  thee,  thou  shalt  keep  my  covenant,  thou, 
and  thy  seed  after  thee  throughout  their  genera- 
tions." ^  And  then  there  came  the  explanation,  how 
Abraham  was  to  enter  into  the  covenant  of  blood- 
friendship  with  the  Lord ;  so  that  he  might  be  called 
"  the  friend  of  God."  "  This  is  my  covenant,  which 
ye  shall  keep,  between  me  and  you,  and  thy  seed 
after  thee ;  every  male  among  you  shall  be  circum- 
cised. And  ye  shall  be  circumcised  in  the  flesh  of 
your  foreskin ;  and  it  shall  be  a  token  of  a  cove- 
nant betwixt  me  and  you."^  The  blood-covenant 
of  friendship  shall  be  consummated  by  your  giving 
to  me  of  your  personal  blood  at  the  very  source  of 
paternity — "under  your  girdle";'*  thereby  pledging 
yourself  to  me,  and  pledging,  also,  to  me,  those  who 
shall  come  after  you  in  the  line  of  natural  descent. 
"And  my  covenant  [this  covenant  of  blood-friendship] 
shall  be  in  your  flesh  for  an  everlasting  covenant."  ® 

So, "  in  the  selfsame  day  was  Abraham  circumcised," 
and  thenceforward  he  bore  in  his  flesh  the  evidence 

'Gen.  17:  2.  2Qen    17.  y_^  s  Gen.  17:  10,  11. 

*  See  page  174  f.,  supra.  *  Gen.  17  :  13. 

19 


2t8  the  blood  covenant, 

that  he  had  entered  into  the  blood-covenant  of  friend- 
ship with  the  Lord.^  To  this  day,  indeed,  Abraham  is 
designated  in  all  the  East,  as  distinctively,  "  Khaleel- 
Allah,  "the  Friend  of  God,"  or  "  Ibraheem  el-Khaleel," 
"  Abraham  the  Friend"^ — the  one  Friend,  of  God. 

When  a  Jewish  child  is  circumcised,  it  is  commonly 
said  of  him,  that  he  is  caused  "  to  enter  into  the  cove- 
nant of  Abraham  "  ;  and,  his  god-father,  or  sponsor,  is 
called  Baal-bereethf  "  Master  of  the  covenant."  ^    More- 

^  Bearing  in  the  flesh  the  marks  of  one's  devotedness  to  a  divinity,  is 
a  widely  observed  custom  in  the  East.  Burton  tells  of  the  habit,  in 
Mekkeh,  of  cutting  three  parallel  gashes  down  the  fleshy  cheek  of 
every  male  child ;  and  of  the  claim  by  some  that  these  gashes  "  were 
signs  that  the  scarred  [one]  was  the  servant  of  Allah's  house  "  [^Pil- 
grimage  to  Mecca  and  Medinah^  third  ed.,  p.  456).  In  India,  there 
are  various  methods  of  receiving  such  flesh-marks  of  devotedness. 
"  One  of  the  most  common  consists  in  stamping  upon  the  shoulders, 
chest,  and  other  parts  of  the  body,  with  a  red-hot  iron,  certain  marks, 
to  represent  the  armor  [or  livery]  of  their  gods;  the  impressions  of 
which  are  never  effaced,  but  are  accounted  sacred,  and  are  ostenta- 
tiously displayed  as  marks  of  distinctions"  (Dubois's  Des.  of  Man. 
and  Cust.  in  India^  Part  III.,  chap.  3).  "  From  henceforth  let  no  man 
trouble  me,"  says  Paul :  "  for  I  bear  branded  on  my  body  the  marks 
of  Jesus  "  (Gal.  6:17).  2  gg^  Price's  Hist,  of  Arabia,  p.  56. 

'  It  is  certainly  noteworthy,  that  the  Canaanitish  god  "  Baal-be- 
reeth  "  (see  Judges  8 :  33 ;  9:4)  seems  to  have  had  its  centre  of  wor- 
ship at,  or  near,  Shechem ;  and  there  was  where  the  Canaanites  were 
induced  to  seek,  by  circumcision,  a  part  with  the  house  of  Jacob  in  the 
blood-covenant  of  Abraham  (see  Gen.  34:  1-31). 

*  See  Godwyn's  Moses  and  Aaron,  p.  216  f. 


THE  BLOOD  AND    THE   WINE.  219 

over,  even  down  to  modern  times,  the  rite  of  circum- 
cision has  included  a  recognition,  however  unconscious, 
of  the  primitive  blood-friendship  rite,  by  the  custom  of 
the  ecclesiastical  operator,  as  God's  representative,  re- 
ceiving into  his  mouth,  and  thereby  being  made  a  par- 
taker of,  the  blood  mingled  with  wine,  according  to  the 
method  described  among  the  Orientals,  in  the  rite  of 
blood-friendship,  from  the  earliest  days  of  history.^ 
It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  primitive  compact  of  blood- 

1  Buxtorf,  who  is  a  recognized  authority,  in  the  knowledge  of  Rabbini- 
cal literature  and  of  Jewish  customs,  says,  on  this  point :  "  Cum  deinde 
compater  infantulum  in  sinu  habet  jacentem,  turn  Mohel  sive  circum- 
cisor  eum  h  fasciis  evolvit,  pudendum  ejus  apprehendit,  ejusque  ante- 
riorem  partem  per  cuticulam  prseputii  comprehendit,  granulumque 
pudendi  ejus  retrorsum  premit ;  quo  facto  cuticulam  prseputii  fricat,  ut  ilia 
per  id  emortua  infantulus  csesuram  tanto  minus  sentiscat.  Deinde  cultel- 
lum  circumcisorium  h  pueri  astantis  manu  capit,  claraque  voce,  Benedictus 
(inquit)  esto  tu  Deus,  Domine  noster,  Rex  mundi,  qui  nos  mandatis  tuis 
sanctificasti,  nobisque  pactum  circumcisionis  dedisti.  Interim  dum  ille 
loquitur  sic,  particulam  prseputii  antetiorem  usque  eo  abscindit,  ut  capi- 
tellum  pudendi  nudum  conspici  queat,  illamque  festinanter  in  patellam 
arena  ista  plenam  conjicit ;  puero-  quoque  isti,  §».  quo  acceperat,  cultellum 
reddit  circumcisorium ;  ab  alio  vero  poculum  vino  rubro  (ceu  dictum  fuit) 
impletum,  capit ;  haurit  ex  eo  quantum  ore  continere  potest,  quod  mox 
super  infantulum  expuit,  eoque  sanguinem  ejus  abluit:  in  faciem  quoque 
infantuli  vini  aliquid  expuit,  si  eum  viribus  defici  conspexerit.  Mox  pu- 
dendum puelli  ore  comprehendit,  et  sanguinis  ex  eodem  quantumcunque 
potest,  exugit,  ut  sanguis  idem  tanto  citius  se  sistat ;  sanguinem  exuctum 
in  alterum  poculorum  vino  rubro  refertorum,  vel  in  patellam  arena  abun- 
dantem,  expuit."     {Synagoga  Judaica^  Cap.  II.) 


220  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

friendship,  that  he  who  would  enter  into  it  must  be 
ready  to  make  a  complete  surrender  of  himself,  in  lov- 
ing trust,  to  him  with  whom  he  covenants.  He  must, 
in  fact,  so  love  and  trust,  as  to  be  willing  to  merge 
his  separate  individuality,  in  the  dual  personality  of 
which  he  becomes  an  integral  part.  Only  he  who  be- 
lieves in  another  unreservedly  and  fearlessly,  can  take 
such  a  step  intelligently.  The  record  concerning 
Abraham  stands  :  "  He  believed  in  the  Lord ;  and  He 
counted  it  to  him  for  righteousness."^  The  Hebrew 
word,  heemeen  {^P^^>)  here  translated  "  believed  in," 
carries  the  idea  of  an  unqualified  committal  of  self  to 
another.  It  is  from  the  root  aman  (|^?)  with  the 
two-fold  idea  of  "  to  be  faithful "  and  "  to  trust."  ^  Its 
correspondent  in  the  Arabic,  (amana,  ^jjo\  )  carries 
the  same  double  idea,  of  a  confident  and  an  entire 
committal  of  self  to  another,  in  trust  and  in  trust- 
worthiness.^ Lane's  definition^  of  the  substantive 
from  this  root  is :  "  The  becoming  true  to  the  trust, 
with  respect  to  which  God  has  confided  in  one,  by  a 
firm  believing  of  the  heart."  ^     Abraham  so  trusted  the 

*  Gen.  15:6;  Rom.  4:3;  Gal.  3:6;  James  2 :  23. 
2  See  Fuerst's  Heb.  Chald.  Lex.,  s.  v. 
^See  Freytag's  Lex.  Arab.  Lat.,  s.  v. 
*  See  Lane's  Arab.  Eng.  Lex.,  s.  v. 
^  In  the  Chinese  language,  likewise,  "  the  word  for  faithfulness  means 
both  to  be  trustworthy,  and  also  to  trust  to,  and  refers  chiefly  to  friend- 
ship."    (Edkins's  Relig.  in  China^  p.  ii8.) 


THE  FIRST  BORN  OF  MOSES.  221 

Lord,  that  he  was  ready  to  commit  himself  to  the 
Lord,  as  in  the  rite  of  blood-friendship.  Therefore 
the  Lord  counted  Abraham's  spirit  of  loving  and 
longing  trust,  as  the  equivalent  of  a  spiritual  likeness 
with  himself;  and  the  Lord  received  Abraham,  by  his 
circumcision,  into  the  covenant  of  blood-friendship.^ 
Or,  as  the  Apostle  James  states  it:  "Abraham  be- 
lieved [in]  God,  and  it  was  reckoned  unto  him  for 
righteousness ;  and  he  was  called  the  friend  of  God."  ^ 
Here  is  the  doctrine  of  "  imputation,"  with  real  life  in 
it;  in  lieu  of  a  hard  commercial  transaction,  as  some 
have  viewed  it. 

The  recognition  of  the  covenant  of  blood  in  the  rite 
of  circumcision,  throws  light  on  an  obscure  passage 
in  the  life  of  Moses,  as  recorded  in  Exodus  4 :  20-26. 
Moses,  himself  a  child  of  the  covenant,  had  neglected 
the  circumcision  of  his  own  first-born  ;  and  so  he  had 
been  unfaithful  to  the  covenant  of  Abraham.  While 
on  his  way  from  the  Wilderness  of  Sinai  to  Egypt, 

1  The  Rabbis  give  a  preeminent  place  to  circumcision  as  the  rite  by 
which  Abraham  became  the  Friend  of  God.  They  say  (see  citations 
from  the  Talmud,  in  Nethivoth  Olam^  p.  367  ):  "  Abraham  was  not 
called  perfect  before  he  was  circumcised ;  and  because  of  the  merit  of 
circumcision  was  the  covenant  made  with  him  concerning  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  Land.  It  [circumcision]  also  saves  from  the  punishment 
of  hell ;  for  our  sages  have  said,  that  Abraham  sits  at  the  gates  of  hell 
and  suffers  no  one  to  enter  in  there  who  is  circumcised." 
2  James  2  :  23. 


222  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

with  a  message  from  God  to  Pharaoh,  concerning  the ' 
un-covenanted  first-born  of  the  Egyptians,^  Moses  was 
met  by  a  startling  providence,  and  came  face  to  face 
with  death — ^possibly  with  a  bloody  death  of  some 
sort.  "  The  Lord  met  him,  and  sought  to  kill  him," 
it  is  said.  It  seems  to  have  been  perceived,  both  by 
Moses  and  his  wife,  that  they  were  being  cut  off 
from  a  farther  share  in  God's  covenant-plans  for 
the  descendants  of  Abraham,  because  of  their  failure 
to  conform  to  their  obligations  in  the  covenant  of 
Abraham. 

"  Then  Zipporah  took  a  flint,  and  cut  off  the  fore- 
skin of  her  son,  and  cast  it  at  [made  it  touch]  his 
[Moses']  feet ;  and  she  said.  Surely  a  bridegroom  of 
blood  [one  newly  bound  through  blood],  art  thou  to 
me.  So  He  [the  Lord]  let  him  [Moses]  alone  [He 
spared  him,  as  one  newly  true  to  the  covenant  of 
Abraham,  and  newly  safe  within  its  bounds].  Then 
she  [Zipporah]  said  [again],  A  bridegroom  of  blood 
art  thou,  because  of  the  circumcision ; "  or,  as  the 
margin  renders  it :  "A  bridegroom  of  blood  [art  thou] 
in  regard  of  the  circumcision."  ^ 

The  Hebrew  word,  khathan  (|^n),  here  translated 
"  bridegroom,"  has,  as  its  root  idea,  the  binding  through 
severing,  the  covenanting  by  blood ;  ^  an  idea  that  is 

^Exod.  4:  21-23.  '  Exod.  4 :  25,  26. 

*  See  Fuerst's  Heb.  Chald.  Lex.,  s.  v. 


A  BLOOD- WON  RELATION.  223 

in  the  marriage-rite,  as  the  Orientals  view  it/  and  that 
is  in  the  rite  of  circumcision,  also.  Indeed,  in  the 
Arabic,  the  corresponding  term  (khatan,  ^j-X^  ),  is  ap- 
plied interchangeably  to  one  who  is  a  relation  by  the 
way  of  one's  wife,  and  to  one  who  is  circumcised.^ 
Hence,  the  words  of  Zipporah  would  imply  that,  by 
this  rite  of  circumcision,  she  and  her  child  were 
brought  into  blood-covenant  relations  with  the  de- 
scendants of  Abraham,  and  her  husband  also  was  now 
saved  to  that  covenant ;  whereas  before  they  were  in 
danger  of  being  covenanted  with  a  bloody  death.  It 
is  this  idea  which  seems  to  be  in  the  Targum  of  Onke- 
los,  where  it  renders  Zipporah's  first  words  :  "  By  the 
blood  of  this  circumcision,  a  khathna  [a  blood-won 
relation]  is  given  to  us  ;"  and  her  second  speech  :  "  If 
the  blood  of  this  circumcision  had  not  been  given  [to 
us;  then  we  had  had]  a  khathna  [a  blood-won  rela- 
tion] of  slaughter  [of  death]."  It  is  as  though  Zippo- 
rah had  said :  "  We  are  now  newly  covenanted  to  each 
other,  and  to  God,  by  blood ;  whereas,  but  for  this,  we 
should  have  been  covenanted  to  slaughter  [or  death] 
by  blood." 

*  See  Deut.  22 :  13-21.  To  this  day,  in  the  East,  an  exhibit  of  blood- 
stains, as  the  indubitable  proof  of  a  consummated  covenant  of  marriage, 
is  common.  See  Niebuhr's  Beschreibung  von  Arabien,  pp.  35-39; 
Burckhardt's  Arabic  Proverbs,  p.  140;  Lane's  Mod.  Egypt.,  I.,  221,  note. 

2  See  Lane,  and  Freytag,  s.  vv.,  Khatan,  Khatana. 


224  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

4.    THE    BLOOD    COVENANT   TESTED. 

After  the  formal  covenant  of  blood  had  been  made  be- 
tween Abraham  and  Jehovah,  there  was  a  specific  testing 
of  Abraham's  fidelity  to  that  covenant,  as  if  in  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  it  was  no  empty  ceremony  on  his  part, 
whereby  he  pledged  his  blood, — his  very  life,  in  its  suc- 
cessive generations, — ^to  Jehovah,  in  the  rite  of  circum- 
cision. The  declaration  of  his  "  faith,"  and  the  promise 
of  his  faithfulness,  were  to  be  justified,  in  their  manifest 
sincerity,  by  his  explicit  "  works"  in  their  direction. 

All  the  world  over,  men  who  were  in  the  covenant  of 
blood-friendship  were  ready, — or  were  supposed  to  be 
ready, — to  give  not  only  their  lives  for  each  other,  but 
even  to  give,  for  each  other,  that  which  was  dearer  to 
them  than  life  itself  And,  all  the  world  over,  men  who 
pledged  their  devotedness  to  their  gods  were  ready  to 
surrender  to  their  gods  that  which  they  held  as  dearest 
and  most  precious — even  to  the  extent  of  their  life,  and 
of  that  which  was  dearer  than  life.  Would  Abraham  do 
as  much  for  his  Divine  Friend,  as  men  would  do  for  their 
human  friends  ?  Would  Abraham  surrender  to  his  God 
all  that  the  worshipers  of  other  gods  were  willing  to 
surrender  in  proof  of  their  devotedness  ?  These  were 
questions  yet  to  be  answered  before  the  world. 

"And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  God 
did  prove  Abraham  [did  put  him  to  the  test,  or  the 


ORIENTAL  ESTIMATE  OF  A  SON.  225 

proof,  of  his  friendship],  and  said  unto  him,  Abraham ; 
and  he  said,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said,  Take  now  thy 
son,  thine  only  son,  whom  thou  lovest,  even  Isaac,  and 
get  thee  unto  the  land  of  Moriah  ;  and  offer  him  there 
for  a  burnt-offering  upon  one  of  the  mountains  which 
I  will  tell  thee  of"^  And  Abraham  rose  up  instantly 
to  respond  to  the  call  of  his  Divine  Friend. 

Just  here  it  is  important  to  consider  two  or  three 
points  at  which  the  Western  mind  has  commonly  failed 
to  recognize  the  Oriental  thought,  in  connection  with 
such  a  transaction  as  this. 

An  Oriental  father  prizes  an  only  son's  life  far  more 
than  he  prizes  his  own.  He  recognizes  it,  to  be  sure, 
as  at  his  own  disposal ;  but  he  would  rather  surrender 
any  other  possession  than  that.  For  an  Oriental  to 
die  without  a  son,  is  a  terrible  thought.^  His  life  is  a 
failure.  His  future  is  blank.  But  with  a  son  to  take 
his  place,  an  Oriental  is,  in  a  sense,  ready  to  die. 
When  therefore  an  Oriental  has  one  son,  if  the  choice 
must  be  between  the  cutting  short  of  the  father's  life, 
or  of  the  son's,  the  former  would  be  the  lesser  surren- 

^Gen.  22:  I,  2. 
'  "  Heaven  awaits  not  one  who  is  destitute  of  a  son,"  say  the  Brah- 
mans  (See  page  194,  supra).  See,  also,  e.  g.,  Thomson's  Land  and 
Book,  I.,  177 ;  Roberts's  Orient.  ///.,  p.  53  f.,  Ginsburg's  "  Illustra- 
tions," in  Bible  Educator,  I.,  30 ;  Lane's  Mod.  Egypt.,  I.,  68.  Living- 
stone's Trav.  and  Res.  in  So.  A/.,  p.  140 ;  Pierotti's  Cmt.  and  Trad, 
of  Pal.,  pp.  177  f.,  190  f. 


2  26  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

der;  the  latter  would  be  far  greater.  Preeminently 
did  this  truth  have  force  in  the  case  of  Abraham, 
whose  pilgrim-life  had  been  wholly  with  reference  to 
the  future ;  and  whose  earthly-joy  and  earthly-hopes 
centered  in  Isaac,  the  son  of  his  old  age.  For  Abra- 
ham to  have  surrendered  his  own  toil-worn  life,  now  that 
a  son  of  promise  was  born  to  him,  would  have  been  a 
minor  matter,  at  the  call  of  God.  But  for  Abraham  to 
surrender  that  son,  and  so  to  become  again  a  child- 
less, hopeless  old  man,  was  a  very  different  matter. 
Only  a  faith  that  would  neither  question  nor  reasoii, 
only  a  love  that  would  neither  fail  nor  waver,  could 
meet  an  issue  like  that.  The  surrender  of  an  only 
son  by  an  Oriental,  was  not,  therefore,  as  it  is  often 
deemed  in  the  Western  mind,  a  father's  selfish  yielding 
of  a  lesser  substitute  for  himself;^  but  it  was  the  giving 
of  the  one  thing  which  he  had  power  to  surrender, 
which  was  more  precious  to  him  than  himself.  The 
difference  here  is  as  great  as  that  between  the  enforced 
sending,  by  an  able-bodied  citizen,  of  a  "  substitute " 
defender  of  the  sender's  country  in  a  war-time  draft, 
and  the  willing  sending  to  the  front,  by  an  aged 
father,  of  his  loved  and  only  son,  at  the  first  signal  of 
his  country's  danger.  The  one  case  has  in  it  more 
than  a  suggestion  of  cowardly  shirking;  the  other 
shows  only  a  loyal  and  self-forgetful  love  of  country. 

*  See  illustrations  of  this  error  in  Tylor's  Prim.  Cult.^  II.,  403. 


CHILDREN  YIELDED  IN  FRIENDSHIP.       2  2/ 

Again,  we  are  liable  to  think  of  the  surrender  of  a 
life,  as  the  dooming  to  death ;  and  of  a  sacrificial  out- 
pouring of  blood,  as  necessarily  an  expiatory  offering. 
In  the  case  of  the  only  son  sent  into  battle  by  his 
patriotic  father,  death  may  be  an  incident  to  the  trans- 
action ;  but  the  gift  of  the  son  is  the  gift  of  his  lifey 
whether  he  shall  live  or  die.  And  although  the  war 
itself  be  caused  by  sin,  and  be  a  result,  and  so  a  punish- 
ment, of  sin,  the  son  is  sent  into  it,  not  in  order  that  he 
may  bear  punishment,  but  that  he  may  avert  its  disas- 
trous consequences,  even  at  the  cost  of  his  life — with 
the  necessity  of  his  death. 

This  idea  of  the  surrender  of  an  only  son,  not  in  ex- 
piation of  guilt,  but  in  proof  of  unselfish  and  limitless 
affection,  runs  down  through  the  ages,  apart  from  any 
apparent  trace  of  connection  with  the  tradition  of 
Abraham  and  Isaac.  It  is  seen  : — in  India,  in  the  story 
of  the  sacrifice  of  Siralen,  the  only  son  of  Sirutunden 
and  Vanagata-ananga,  as  a  simple  proof  of  their  loving 
devotedness  to  Vishnoo ;  ^  in  Arabia,  in  the  story  of 
the  proffered  slaying  of  the  two  only  children  of  a  king, 
in  order  to  restore  to  life  by  their  blood,  his  dearly  loved 
friend  and  servant,  who  had  been  turned  to  stone ;  ^  in 
the  Norseland,  in  the  similar  story  of  the  king  and  his 
friend  and  servant "  Faithful  John ; "  ^  in  Great  Britain,  in 

*  See  page  185  f.,  supra.  2  gee  page  119  f.,  supra. 

'  See  page  120,  supra. 


2  28  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

the  story  of  Amy  s  and  Amylion,  the  one  of  these  friends 
sacrificing  his  two  only  children  for  the  purpose  of 
curing  the  other  friend  of  the  leprosy  ;^  and  so  in  many 
another  guise.^  Whatever  other  value  attaches  to  these 
legends,  they  show  most  clearly,  that  the  conception  of 
such  a  surrender  as  that  to  which  Abraham  was  called 
in  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  was  not  a  mere  outgrowth  of  the 
customs  of  human  sacrifices  to  malignant  divinities,  in 
Phoenicia  and  Moab  and  the  adjoining  countries,  in  the 
days  of  Abraham  and  earlier.^  There  was  a  sentiment 
involved,  which  is  everywhere  recognized  as  the  noblest 
and  purest  of  which  humanity  is  capable. 

If,  indeed,  there  were  any  reluctance  to  accept  this 
simple  explanation  of  an  obvious  view  of  the  test  of 
friendship  to  which  God  subjected  Abraham,  because 
of  its  possible  bearing  on  the  recognized  symbolism 
of  the  transaction,  then  it  would  be  sufficient  to  remem- 
ber, that  one  view  of  such  a  transaction  is  not  necessarily 
its  only  view.  Whatever  other  view  be  taken  of  the 
fact  and  the  symbolism  of  God's  call  on  Abraham,  to 
surrender  to  him  his  only  son,  it  is  obvious  that,  as  a 
fact,  God  did  test,  or  prove,  Abraham  his  friend,  by 
asking  of  him  the  very  evidence  of  his  loving  and  un- 
selfish devotedness  to  him,  which  has  been,  everywhere 

^  See  page  117,  supra,  "*  See  page  118  f.,  120  f,,  supra, 

'  See  discussions   of   this   point,  by  Hengstenberg,  Kurtz,  Oehler, 
Ewald,  Kuenen,  Lange,  Keil  and  Delitzsch,  Stanley,  Mozeley,  etc. 


TRIED  AND    TRUE.  229 

and  always,  reckoned  the  highest  and  surest  evidence 
possible  of  the  truest  and  holiest  friendship.  And  this 
may  well  be  looked  at,  also,  as  a  symbol  of  God's 
purpose  of  surrendering  his  only  Son,  in  proof  of 
his  fidelity  to  his  blood-covenant  of  friendship  with 
Abraham  and  Abraham's  true  seed  forever. 

"  Greater  love  [in  friendship]  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends;"^  and  no 
man,  as  the  Oriental  mind  views  it,  can  so  utterly  lay 
down  his  life,  as  when  he  lays  down  the  larger  life  of 
his  only  son.  Abraham  showed  himself  capable  of 
even  such  friendship  as  this,  in  his  blood-covenant  with 
Jehovah;  and  when  he  had  manifested  his  spirit 
of  devotedness,  he  was  told  to  stay  his  hand  and 
spare  his  son :  the  will  was  accepted  for  the  deed. 
"  Yea,  he  that  had  gladly  received  the  promises,  was 
offering  up  his  only  begotten  son ;  even  he  of  whom 
it  was  said,  In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called  :  account- 
ing that  God  is  able  to  raise  up  even  from  the  dead ; 
from  whence  he  did  also  in  a  parable  receive  him 
back."^  Then  it  was,  that  "  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
called  unto  Abraham  a  second  time  out  of  heaven  and 
said,  By  myself  have  I  sworn  [by  my  life],  saith  the 
Lord,  because  thou  hast  done  this  thing,  and  hast  not 
withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son :  that  in  blessing  I 
will  bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thy 

*John  15:  13.  ^Heb.  11 :  17-19. 

20 


230  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

seed  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  which 
is  upon  the  seashore;  and  thy  seed  shall  possess  the 
gate  of  his  enemies ;  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed :  because  thou  hast 
[even  to  this  extent]  obeyed  my  voice."  ^  The  blood- 
covenant  of  friendship  between  Jehovah  and  Abraham 
had  more  meaning  in  it  than  ever,  through  its  testing 
and  its  triumph,  in  this  transaction. 

And  it  is  on  this  record,  and  apparently  in  this  view 
of  the  record,  that  the  Apostle  James  says :  "  Was 
not  Abraham  our  father  justified  by  works,  in  that  he 
offered  up  Isaac  his  son  upon  the  altar  ?  Thou  seest 
that  faith  wrought  with  his  works,  and  by  works  was 
faith  made  perfect  [consummated]  ;  and  the  Scripture 
was  fulfilled  which  saith,  And  Abraham  believed  God, 
and  it  was  reckoned  unto  him  for  righteousness ;  and 
he  was  called  the  friend  of  God." 

5.     THE    BLOOD     COVENANT    AND     ITS     TOKENS     IN    THE 
PASSOVER. 

There  came,  again,  a  time  when  the  Lord  would 
give  fresh  evidence  of  his  fidelity  to  his  covenant  of 
blood-friendship  with  Abraham.  Again,  a  new  start 
was  to  be  made  in  the  history  of  redemption.  The 
seed  of  Abraham  was  in  Egypt,  and  the  Lord  would 
bring  thence  that  seed,  for  its  promised  inheritance  in 

iGen.  22  :  15-18.  2jaines2:  21-23. 


THE  PASSOVER  SIGN.  23 1 

Canaan.  The  Egyptians  refused  to  let  Israel  go,  at 
the  call  of  the  Lord.  The  Lord  sent  a  series  of  strokes, 
or  "plagues"  upon  the  Egyptians,  to  enforce  their 
obedience  to  his  summons.  And  first,  he  turned  the 
waters  of  Egypt  into  blood ;  so  that  there  was  noth- 
ing for  the  Egyptians  to  drink  save  that  which,  as  the 
representative  of  life,  was  sacred  to  their  gods,  and 
must  not  be  tasted.^  So  on,  from  "  plague"  to  "  plague" 
— from  stroke  to  stroke ;  until  the  Lord's  sentence  went 
forth  against  all  the  uncovenanted  first-born  of  Egypt. 
Then  it  was,  that  the  Lord  gave  another  illustration  of 
the  binding  force  of  the  unfailing  covenant  of  blood. 

In  the  original  covenant  of  blood-friendship,  between 
Abraham  and  the  Lord,  it  was  Abraham  who  gave  of 
his  blood  in  token  of  the  covenant.  Now,  the  Lord 
was  to  give  of  his  blood,  by  substitution,  in  re-affirma- 
tion of  that  covenant,  with  the  seed  of  Abraham  his 
friend.  So  the  Lord  commanded  the  choice  of  a  lamb, 
"without  blemish,  a  male  of  the  first  year";^  typical 
in  its  qualities,  and  representative  in  its  selection.  The 
blood  of  that  lamb  was  to  be  put  "  on  the  two  side 
posts  and  on  the  lintel "  of  every  house  of  a  descend- 
ant of  Abraham;  above  and  along  side  of  every 
passer  through  the  doorway.^  "And  the  blood  shall 
be  to  you   for  a  token  upon  the  houses  where  ye 

^SeeExod.  4:  9;  7:  17-21.  'geeExod.  12:  1-6. 

*  See  a  reference  to  a  similar  custom  in  China,  at  page  153,  supra. 


232  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

are,"  said  the  Lord  to  this  people :  "  and  when  I  see 
the  blood  [the  token  of  my  blood-covenant  with  Abra- 
ham], I  will  pass  over  you,  and  there  shall  no  plague 
be  upon  you  to  destroy  you,  when  I  smite  the  land  of 
Egypt."  1 

The  flesh  of  the  chosen  lamb  was  to  be  eaten  by 
the  Israelites,  reverently,  as  an  indication  of  that  inter- 
communion which  the  blood-friendship  rite  secures ; 
and  in  accordance  with  a  common  custom  of  the 
primitive  blood-covenant  rite,  everywhere. 

To  this  day,  as  I  can  testify  from  personal  observa- 
tion, the  Samaritans  on  Mount  Gerizim  (where  alone 
in  all  the  world  the  passover-blood  is  now  shed,  year 
by  year),  bring  to  mind  the  blood-covenant  aspects  of 
this  rite,  by  their  uses  of  that  sacred  blood.  The 
spurting  life-blood  of  the  consecrated  lambs  is  caught 
in  basins,  as  it  flows  from  their  cut  throats ;  and  not 
only  are  all  the  tents  promptly  marked  with  the  blood 
as  a  covenant-token,  but  every  child  of  the  covenant 
receives  also  a  blood-mark,  on  his  forehead,  between 
his  eyes,^  in  evidence  of  his  relation  to  God  in  the 
covenant  of  blood-friendship. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  primitive  rite  of 
blood-friendship  a  blood-stained  record  of  the  cove- 
nant is  preserved  in  a  small  leathern  case,  to  be  worn 
as  an  amulet  upon  the  arm,  or  about  the  neck,  by 

^Exod.  12:  7-13.  2  See,  again,  at  pages  154,  supra. 


THE  PHYLACTERY-TOKEN.  233 

him  who  has  won  a  friend  forever  in  this  sacred  rite.^ 
It  would  even  seem  that  this  was  the  custom  in  ancient 
Egypt,  where  the  red  amulet,  which  represented  the 
blood  of  Isis,  was  worn  by  those  who  claimed  a  blood- 
friendship  with  the  gods.^  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that 
it  was  in  conjunction  with  the  institution  of  this  pass- 
over  rite  of  the  Lord's  blood-friendship  with  Israel,  as 
a  permanent  ceremonial,  that  the  Lord  declared  of  this 
rite  and  its  token :  "  It  shall  be  for  a  sign  upon  thine 
hand,  and  for  frontlets  between  thine  eyes."^  And  it  is 
on  the  strength  of  this  injunction,  that  the  Jews  have, 
to  this  day,  been  accustomed  to  wear  upon  their  fore- 
heads, and  again  upon  their  arm — as  a  crown  and  as 
an  armlet — a  small  leathern  case,  as  a  sacred  amulet, 
or  as  a  "  phylactery  "  ;  containing  a  record  of  the  pass- 
over-covenant  between  the  Lord  and  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham his  friend.  Not  the  law  itself,  but  the  substance 
of  the  covenant  between  the  Lawgiver  and  his  people, 
was  the  text  of  this  amulet  record.  It  included 
Exodus  13:  3-10,  11-16,  with  its  reference  to  God's 
deliverance  of  his  people  from  bondage,  to  the  institu- 
tion of  the  passover  feast,  and  to  the  consecration  of 

*  See  page  7  f.,  supra. 
'  See  page  81  f.,  supra.     It  is,  indeed,  by  no  means  improbable,  that  the 
Hebrew  word  tStaphdth  (fllSDID),  translated  "  frontlets,"  as  applied  to 
the  phylacteries  was  an  Egyptian  word.     Its  etymology  has  been  a  puz- 
zJe  to  the  critics.  sseeExod.ij:  11-16. 

20* 


234  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

the  redeemed  first-born;  also  Deuteronomy  6:  4-9, 
13—22,  with  its  injunction  to  entire  and  unswerving 
fidelity,  in  the  covenant  thus  memoralized. 

The  incalculable  importance  of  the  symbolism  of 
the  phylacteries,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Lord's  peo- 
ple, has  been  recognized,  as  a  fact,  by  both  Jewish  and 
Christian  scholars,  even  after  their  primary  meaning 
has  been  lost  sight  of — through  a  strange  dropping 
out  of  sight  of  the  primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting, 
so  familiar  in  the  land  of  Egypt  and  in  the  earlier  and 
later  homes  of  the  Hebrews.  The  Rabbis  even  held 
that  God  himself,  as  the  other  party  in  this  blood- 
covenant,  wore  the  phylacteries,  as  its  token  and 
memorial.^  Among  other  passages  in  support  of  this, 
they  cited  Isaiah  49:  16:  "Behold  I  have  graven 
thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands  " ;  and  Isaiah  62 : 
8  :  "The  Lord  hath  sworn  by  his  right  hand,  and  by 
the  arm  of  his  strength."  Farrar,  referring  to  this 
claim  of  the  Rabbis,  says,  "  it  may  have  had  some 
mystic  meaning  "  ;  ^  and  certainly  the  claim  corres- 
ponds singularly  with  the  thought  and  with  the  cus- 
toms of  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting.  To  this  day 
many  of  the  Syrian  Arabs  swear,  as  a  final  and  a 
most  sacred  oath,  by  their  own  blood — as  their  own 

^  See  references  to  Zohar,  Pt.  II.,  Fol.  2,  by  Farrar,  in  Smith- 
Hackett's  Bible  Dictionary ^  Art.  "Frontlets." 

2  Smith-Hackett's  Bib.  Diet.,  Art.  «  Frontlets." 


THE  UPLIFTED  ARM.  235 

life ;  ^  and  in  making  the  covenant  of  blood-friendship 
they  draw  the  blood  from  the  upper  arm,  because,  as 
they  explain  it,  the  arm  is  their  strength.^  The  cry 
of  the  Egyptian  soul  to  his  god,  in  his  resting  on  the 
covenant  of  blood,  was,  "  Give  me  your  arm ;  I  am 
made  as  ye."  ^  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  those 
who  had  the  combined  traditions  of  Egypt  and  of 
Syria,  should  see  a  suggestion  of  the  covenant  of 
blood-friendship  in  the  inspired  assurance :  "  The 
Lord  hath  sworn  by  his  right  hand,  and  by  the  arm 
of  his  strength."  It  is  by  no  means  improbable, 
indeed,  that  the  universal  custom  of  lifting  up  the  arm 
to  God  in  a  solemn  oath  ^  was  a  suggestion  of  swear- 

^  On  this  point  I  have  the  emphatic  testimony  of  intelligent  native 
Syrians.  "As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord" — or  more  literally,  "  I,  living, 
saith  the  Lord."  "  For  when  God  made  promise  to  Abraham,  since 
he  could  swear  by  no  greater,  he  sware  by  himself" — by  his  life. 
(Comp.  Isa.  49 :  18;  Jer.  22  :  24;  Ezek.  5  :  II ;  Heb.  6:  13.) 

2  This  also  I  am  assured  of,  by  native  Syrians.  One  who  had  resided 
in  both  Syria  and  Upper  Egypt  told  me,  that  in  Syria,  in  the  rite  of 
blood-friendship,  the  blood  is  taken  from  the  arm  as  the  symbol  of 
strength;  while  in  portions  of  Africa  where  the  legs  are  counted 
stronger  than  the  arms,  through  the  training  of  the  people  as  runners 
rather  than  as  burden-bearers,  the  leg  supplies  the  blood  for  this  rite 
(See  reference  to  Stanley  and  Mirambo's  celebration  of  this  rite  at  pages 
18-20,  supra).  3  See  page  79,  supra. 

*  See  e.  g.  Gen.  14:  22;  Dan.  12:7.  "It  is  an  interesting  fact,  that 
many  of  the  images  of  the  gods  of  the  heathen  have  the  right  hand 
Med  up."     (Robert's  Orient.  III.  of  Scrip.,  p.  20.; 


236  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

ing  by  one's  blood,  by  proffering  it  in  its  strength,  as 
in  the  inviolable  covenant  of  sacred  friendship  with 
God.  So,  again,  in  the  "striking  hands  "  as  a  form  of 
sacred  covenanting  ^ ;  the  clasping  of  hands,  in  blood. 
The  Egyptian  amulet  of  blood-friendship  was  red, 
as  representing  the  blood  of  the  gods.  The  Egyptian 
word  for  "  red,"  sometimes  stood  for  "  blood."  ^  The 
sacred  directions  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  were  written 
in  red ;  ^  hence,  follows  our  word  "  rubrics."  The  Rabbis 
say,  that  when  persecution  forbade  the  wearing  of  the 
phylacteries  with  safety,  a  red  thread  might  be  sub- 
stituted for  this  token  of  the  covenant  with  the  Lord.* 
It  was  a  red  thread  which  Joshua  gave  to  Rahab  as  a 
token  of  her  covenant  relations  with  the  people  of  the 
Lord.^  The  red  thread,  in  China,  to-day,  as  has 
been  already  shown,  binds  the  double  cup,  from  which 
the  bride  and  bridegroom  drink  their  covenant  draught 
of  "  wedding  wine  "  ;  as  if  in  symbolism  of  the  coven- 
ant of  blood.^  And  it  is  a  red  thread  which  in  India, 
to-day,  is  used  to  bind  a  sacred  amulet  around  the 
arm   or  the   neckj     Among  the   American    Indians, 

^  See  Prov.  6  :  i ;  11:15  (margin)  ;  22  :  24-26. 
2  See  page  47,  supra. 
'  See  Lepsius's  exemplar  of  the  Todtenbuch  ;  also  Birch,  in  Bunsen's 
Egypt's  Place,  V.,  125. 

*See  Farrar's  article  on  "  Frontlets,"  in  Smith-Hackett's  Bib.  Die. 

*  Joshua  2  :  18-20.  ^  See  pages  93  f.,  supra. 

'  See  Robert's  Orient.  III.  of  Scrip.,  p.  20. 


SAUrS  EMBLEMS  OF  ROYALTY.  237 

"scarlet,  or  red,"  is  the  color  which  stands  for  sacri- 
fices, or  for  sacrificial  blood,  in  all  their  picture  paint- 
ing ;  and  the  shrine,  or  tunkan^  which  continues  to 
have  its  devotees,  "  is  painted  red,  as  a  sign  of  active 
[or  living]  worship."^  The  same  is  true  of  the 
shrines  in  India ;  ^  the  color  red  shows  that  worship  is 
still  living  there ;  red  continues  to  stand  for  blood. 

The  two  covenant  tokens  of  blood-friendship  with 
God — circumcision  and  the  phylacteries — are,  by  the 
Rabbis,  closely  linked  in  their  relative  importance. 
**  Not  every  Israelite  is  a  Jew,"  they  say,  "  except  he 
has  two  witnesses — the  sign  of  circumcision  and  phy- 
lacteries "  ;  ^  the  sign  given  to  Abraham,  and  the  sign 
given  to  Moses. 

In  the  narration  of  King  Saul's  death,  as  given  in 
2  Samuel  i :  1-16,  the  young  Amalekite,  who  reports 
Saul's  death  to  David,  says :  "  I  took  the  crown  that 
was  upon  his  head,  and  the  bracelet  that  was  on  his  arm 
[the  emblems  of  his  royalty],  and  have  brought  them 
hither  unto  my  lord."  The  Rabbis,  in  their  paraphra- 
sing of  this  passage,"*  claim  that  it  was  the  phylactery, 
"the  frontlet"  {totephtd)  rather  than  a  "bracelet,"  which 
was  on  the  arm  of  King  Saul ;  as  if  the  king  of  the 

*  Lynd's  Hist,  of  Dakotasy  p.  81. 

2  Bayard  Taylor's  India^  China,  and  Japan,  p.  52. 

'  See  Home  and  Syn.  of  Mod.  Jew,  p.  5. 

*  See  Targum,  in  Buxtorf 's  Biblia  Rabbinica,  in  loco. 


238  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

covenant-people  of  Jehovah  would  not  fail  to  be  with- 
out the  token  of  Jehovah's  covenant  with  that  people. 
So  firmly  fixed  was  the  idea  of  the  appropriateness 
and  the  binding  force  of  these  tokens  of  the  covenant, 
that  their  use,  in  one  form  or  another,  was  continued 
by  Christians,  until  the  custom  was  denounced  by 
representative  theologians  and  by  a  Church  Council. 
In  the  Catacombs  of  Rome,  there  have  been  found 
"  small  caskets  of  gold,  or  other  metal,  for  containing 
a  portion  of  the  Gospels,  generally  part  of  the  first 
chapter  of  John  [with  its  covenant  promises  to  all  who 
believe  on  the  true  Paschal  Lamb],  which  were  worn 
on  the  neck,"  as  in  imitation  of  the  Jewish  phylacter- 
ies. These  covenant  tokens  were  condemned  by  Iren- 
seus,  Augustine,  Chrysostom,  and  by  the  Council  of 
Laodicea,  as  a  relic  of  heathenism.  ^ 

6.    THE    BLOOD   COVENANT   AT   SINAI. 

When  rescued  Israel  had  reached  Mount  Sinai,  and 
a  new  era  for  the  descendants  of  Abraham  was  en- 
tered upon,  by  the  issue  of  the  divinely  given  charter 
of  a  separate  nationality,  the  covenant  of  blood- 
friendship  between  the  Lord  and  the  seed  of  the  Lord's 
friend,  was  once  more  recognized  and  celebrated. 
"And  Moses  came  and  told  the  people  all  the  words 
of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  judgments :  and  all  the  peo- 

^  See  Jones's  Credulities  Past  and  Present ^  p.  188. 


BEFORE  MOUNT  SINAI.  239 

pie  answered  with  one  voice,  and  said,  All  the  words 
which  the  Lord  hath  spoken  will  we  do.  And  Moses 
wrote  all  the  words  of  the  Lord,  and  rose  up  early  in 
the  morning  [or,  *  prepared  for  a  new  start '  as  that 
phrase  means] ,^  and  builded  an  altar  under  the  mount, 
and  twelve  pillars,  according  to  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel.  And  he  sent  young  men  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  which  offered  burnt  offerings,  and  sacrificed 
peace  offerings  of  oxen  unto  the  Lord ; "  not  sin-offer- 
ings are  named,  but  burnt-offerings,  of  consecration,  and 
peace-offerings,  of  communion.  And  now  observe  the 
celebration  of  the  symbolic  rite  of  the  blood-covenant 
between  the  Lord  and  the  Lord's  people,  with  the 
substitute  blood  accepted  on  both  sides,  and  with  the 
covenant  record  agreed  upon.  "And  Moses  took  half 
of  the  blood,  and  put  it  in  basins ;  and  half  of  the 
blood  he  sprinkled  on  the  altar.  And  he  took  the 
book  [the  record]  of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the  audi- 
ence of  the  people :  and  they  said,  All  that  the  Lord 
hath  spoken  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient.  And  Moses 
took  the  blood,  and  sprinkled  it  on  the  people  [half 
of  it  he  sprinkled  on  the  Lord's  altar,  and  half  of  it 
he  sprinkled  on  the  Lord's  people.  The  writer  of 
Hebrews^  says  that  Moses  sprinkled  blood  on  the 
book,  also ;  thus  blood-staining  the  record  of  the  cove- 
nant, according  to  the  custom  in  the  East,  to-day], 

^  See  Kadesk  Bamea,  p.  382,  note.  'Heb.  9 :  19. 


240  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

and  [Moses]  said,  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant, 
which  the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning  all 
these  words  [or,  as  the  margin  renders  it,  *  upon  all 
these  conditions,'  in  the  written  compact].  Then 
went  up  Moses,  and  Aaron,  Nadab,  and  Abihu,  and 
seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel.  .  .  .  And  they 
beheld  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink"  ;^  as  in  the  social 
inter-communion,  which  commonly  accompanies  the 
rite  of  blood-friendship. 

When  Abraham  was  brought  into  the  covenant  of 
blood-friendship  with  Jehovah,  it  was  his  own  blood 
which  Abraham  devoted  to  Jehovah.  When  Jehovah 
recognized  anew  this  covenant  of  blood-friendship 
in  behalf  of  the  seed  of  his  friend,  Jehovah  provided 
the  substitute  blood,  for  its  symbolizing  in  thepassover. 
When  united  Israel  was  to  be  inducted  into  the  privi- 
leges of  this  covenant  of  blood-friendship  at  Mount 
Sinai,  half  of  the  blood  came  from  the  one  party,  and 
half  of  the  blood  came  from  the  other  party,  to  the 
sacred  compact ;  both  portions  being  supplied  from  a 
common  and  a  mutually  accepted  symbolic  substitute. 

7.   THE    BLOOD   COVENANT    IN   THE  MOSAIC    RITUAL. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  Mosaic  law,  there 
was   an   added   emphasis  laid   on  the  sacredness  of 
blood,  which  had   been  insisted    on  in  the  Noachic 
^See  Exod.  24:  i-ii. 


PROHIBITIONS  OF  BLOOD-EATING.        24I 

covenant;  and  many  new  illustrations  were  divinely- 
given  of  the 'possibilities  of  an  ultimate  union  with 
God  through  inter-flowing  blood,  and  of  present  com- 
munion with  God  through  the  sharing  of  the  substi- 
tute flesh  of  a  sacrificial  victim. 

"  Ye  shall  eat  no  manner  of  blood,  whether  it  be  of 
fowl  or  beast,  in  any  of  your  dwellings.  Whosoever 
it  be  that  eateth  any  blood,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off 
from  his  people."  ^  "  Whatsoever  man  there  be  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  or  of  the  strangers  that  sojourn  among 
them,  that  eateth  any  manner  of  blood ;  I  will  set  my 
face  against  that  soul  that  eateth  blood,  and  will  cut 
him  off  from  among  his  people.  For  the  life  [the 
soul]  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood :  and  I  have  given  it 
to  you  upon  the  altar  to  make  atonement  for  your 
souls  :  for  it  is  the  blood  that  maketh  atonement  by 
reason  of  the  life  [by  reason  of  its  being  the  life]. 
Therefore  I  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  No  soul 
of  you  shall  eat  blood,  neither  shall  any  stranger  that 
is  among  you  eat  blood."  ^  "  For  as  to  the  life  of  all 
flesh,  the  blood  thereof  is  all  one  with  the  life  thereof; 
therefore  I  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  shall 
eat  the  blood  of  no  manner  of  flesh :  for  the  life  of  all 
flesh  is  the  blood  thereof:  whosoever  eateth  it  shall  be 
cut  off."  3 

Because  of  sin,  death  has  passed  upon  man.     Man 
*Lev.  7:  26.  2i^y  ly.  i(>_i2.  'Lev.  17:  14. 

21 


242  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

can  have  new  life  only  from  the  Author  of  life.  A 
transfusion  of  life  is,  as  it  were,  a  transfusion  of  blood ; 
for,  "  of  all  flesh,  the  blood  thereof  is  all  one  with  the 
life  thereof."  If,  indeed,  the  death-possessed  man 
could  enter  into  a  blood-covenant  with  the  Author  of 
life, — could  share  the  life  of  him  who  is  Life, — then 
the  dead  might  have  new  life  in  a  new  nature ;  and  the 
far  separated  sinner  might  be  brought  into  oneness 
with  God ;  finding  atonement  in  the  cleansing  flow  of 
the  new  blood  thus  applied.  So  it  pleased  God  to  ap- 
point substitute  blood  upon  the  altar  of  witness  between 
the  sinner  and  Himself,  as  a  symbol  of  that  atonement 
whereby  the  sinner  might,  through  faith,  become  a 
partaker  of  the  divine  nature.  "  The  wages  of  sin  is 
death  ;  but  the  free  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  "  ^ — in 
that  foreshadowed  divine  blood,  which  the  blood  of 
beasts,  offered  on  the  altar,  can,  for  a  time,  typify. 
Blood — even  the  blood  of  beasts — thus  made  sacred, 
as  a  holy  symbol,  must  never  be  counted  as  a  common 
thing ;  but  it  must  be  held,  ever  reverently,  as  a  token 
of  that  life  which  is  the  sinner's  need ;  and  which  is 
God's  grandest  gift  and  God's  highest  prerogative. 

In  the  line  of  this  teaching,  the  command  went 
forth :  "  What  man  soever  there  be  of  the  house  of 
Israel,  that  killeth  an  ox,  or  lamb,  or  goat  in  the 
camp,  or  that  killeth  it  without  the  camp,  and  hath 

iRom.*6:  23. 


BURIAL   OF  BLOOD.  243 

not  brought  it  unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  to 
offer  it  [with  its  blood]  as  an  oblation  unto  the  Lord 
before  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord:  blood  shall  be 
imputed  unto  that  man ;  he  hath  shed  blood  [improp- 
erly] ;  and  that  man  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  his 
people :  to  the  end  that  the  children  of  Israel  may- 
bring  their  sacrifices,  which  they  sacrifice  in  the  open 
field,  even  that  they  may  bring  them  unto  the  Lord, 
unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  unto  the  priest, 
and  sacrifice  them  for  sacrifices  of  peace-offering  unto 
the  Lord.  And  the  priest  shall  sprinkle  the  blood 
upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of 
meeting ;  and  burn  the  fat  for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the 
Lord."  ^  The  children  of  Israel  were,  at  all  times  and 
everywhere,  to  reach  out  after  communion  and  union 
with  God,  through  the  surrender  of  their  personal 
selves  in  the  surrender  of  their  substitute  blood — with 
its  divinely  appointed  symbolism  of  communion  and 
union  with  God  "  in  the  blood  of  the  eternal  coven- 
ant "  of  divine  friendship.^ 

And  again  :  "  Whatsoever  man  there  be  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  or  of  the  strangers  that  sojourn 
among  them,  which  taketh  in  hunting  any  beast  or 
fowl  that  may  be  eaten  ;  he  shall  pour  out  the  blood 
thereof,  and  cover  it  with  the  dust."^  If  he  be  at  a 
distance  from  the  tabernacle,  so  that  he  cannot  bring 

^Lev.  17:  3-6.  'Comp.  Heb.  13:  20.  *Lev.  17:  13. 


244  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

the  blood  for  an  oblation  at  the  altar,  he  must,  at  all 
events,  reverently  pour  out  the  blood  as  unto  God, 
and  cover  it  as  he  would  a  human  body  in  a  grave. 
And  to  this  day  this  custom  prevails,  widely  through- 
out the  East;  not  among  Jews  alone,  but  among 
Christians  and  Muhammadans,  as  also  among  those 
of  other  religions.^ 

Under  the  Mosaic  ritual,  the  forms  and  the  symbol- 
isms of  sacrifice  were  various.  But  through  them  all, 
where  blood  was  an  element, — in  the  sin-offering,  in 
the  trespass-offering,  in  the  burnt-offering,  in  the 
peace-offering, — ^blood  always  represented  life,  never 
death.  Death  was  essential  to  its  securing ;  but,  when 
secured,  blood  was  life.  Death,  as  the  inevitable 
wages  of  sin,  had  already  passed  unto  all  men ;  and 
"  death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses  "  ;  but,  with  the 
full  disclosure  of  the  law,  in  Moses,  which  made  sin 
apparent,  there  came,  also,  a  disclosure  of  an  atone- 
ment for  sin,  and  of  a  cure  for  its  consequences. 
Death  was  already  here  ;  now  came  the  assurance  of 
an  attainable  life.  The  sinner,  in  the  very  article 
of  death,  was  shown  that  he  might  turn,  in  self-surren- 
der and  in  loving  trust,  with   a  proffer  of  his   own 

*  A  traveler  in  Mauritius,  describing  a  Hindoo  sacrifice  there,  of  a  he- 
goat,  in  fulfilment  of  a  vow,  says :  "  It  was  killed  on  soft  ground, 
where  the  blood  would  sink  into  the  earth,  and  leave  no  trace"  (Pike's 
Sub-Tropical  Rambles,  p.  223).     See  also  page  109,  supra. 


LIFE  IS  MORE   THAN  DEATH.  245 

life,  by  substitute  blood,  to  God;  and  that  he  might 
reach  out  hopefully  after  inter- union  with  God,  by  the 
sharing  of  the  divine-nature  in  the  unfailing  covenant 
of  divine-human  blood-friendship.  Thus  "not  as  the 
trespass  [with  its  mere  justice  of  punishment ;  but]  so 
also  [and  '  much  more,'  of  grace  alone,]  is  the  free  gift 
[of  life  to  the  justly  dead]."^ 

All  the  detailed  requirements  of  the  Mosaic  ritual, 
and  all  the  specific  teachings  of  the  Rabbis,  as  well, 
go  to  show  the  preeminence  of  the  blood  in  the  sacrifi- 
cial offerings  ;  go  to  show,  that  it  is  the  life  (which  the 
blood  is),  and  not  the  death  (which  is  merely  necessary 
to  the  securing  of  the  blood),  of  the  victim,  that  is  the 
means  of  atonement ;  that  gives  the  hope  of  a  sinner's 
new  inter-union  with  God. 

In  a  commentary  on  a  Talmudic  tract,  on  The  Day 
of  Atonement,  Rabbi  Obadiah  of  Barttenora,  notes  the 
fact,^  that  in  the  choice  by  lot,  of  the  priests  who  were 
to  have  a  part  in  the  daily  sacrifice,  the  priest  first 
selected  "  obtained  the  right  [of  priority],  and  sprink- 
led the  blood  upon  the  altar,  after  he  had  received  it  in 
the  vessel  for  the  purpose ;  for  he  who  sprinkled  the 
blood  [is  the  one  who  had]  received  the  blood.  The 
next  priest  to  him  killed  the  sacrifice,  and  this  notwith- 

1  Rom.  5  :  12-21. 

2  See  Quarterly  Statement ^  of  Pales.  Expl.  Fund,  for  July  1885,  pp. 
197-207. 

21* 


246  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

standing  [the  fact]  that  the  slaying  preceded  the  re- 
ceiving of  the  blood ;  because  the  office  of  sprinkling 
was  higher  than  that  of  slaying;  for  the  slaying  was  law- 
ful if  done  by  a  stranger  ;  which  was  not  the  case  with 
the  sprinkling."  The  death  of  the  victim  was  a  minor 
matter :  it  was  the  victim's  life, — its  blood  which  was 
its  life, — that  had  chief  value  and  sacredness. 

On  this  same  point  Dr.  Edersheim  says:^  "The 
Talmud  declares  the  offering  of  birds,  so  as  to  secure 
the  blood  [so  as  to  secure  that  which  was  preeminently 
precious]  to  have  been  the  most  difficult  part  of  a 
priest's  work.  For  the  death  of  the  [victim  of  the] 
sacrifice  was  only  a  means  towards  an  end ;  that  end 
being  the  shedding  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood,  by 
which  the  atonement  was  really  made.  The  Rabbis 
mention  a  variety  of  rules  observed  by  the  priest  who 
caught  up  the  blood — all  designed  to  make  the  best 
provision  for  its  proper  sprinkling.  Thus,  the  priest 
was  to  catch  up  the  blood  in  a  silver  vessel  pointed  at 
the  bottom,  so  that  it  could  not  be  put  down  ;  and  to 
keep  it  constantly  stirred,  to  preserve  the  fluidity  of 
the  blood.  In  the  sacrifice  of  the  red  heifer,  however, 
the  priest  caught  the  blood  directly  in  his  left  hand, 
and  sprinkled  it  with  his  right  towards  the  Holy 
Place :  while  in  that  of  the  leper,  one  of  the  two  priests 
received  the  blood  in  the  vessel ;  the  other  [received 

^  The  Temple,  Its  Ministry  and  Services,  p.  88,  f. 


THE  BLOODY  HAND.  247 

it]  in  his  hand,  from  which  he  anointed  the  purified 
leper." 

Recognizing  the  truth  that  in  the  sacrifices  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual,  "  consecration  by  blood  is  consecration 
in  a  living  union  with  Jehovah,"  Professor  W.  Robert- 
son Smith  observes,^  that,  "  in  the  ordinary  atoning 
sacrifices,  the  blood  is  not  applied  to  the  people  [it  is 
merely  poured  out  Godward,  as  if  in  sign  of  life  sur- 
render] ;  but  in  the  higher  forms,  as  in  the  sacrifice  for 
the  whole  congregation  (Lev.  4 :  13  seq}),  the  priest  at 
least  dips  his  hand  in  it,  and  so  puts  the  bond  of  blood 
between  himself,  as  the  people's  representative,  and  the 
altar,  as  the  point  of  contact  with  God."  ^  And  so,  on 
the  basis  of  the  root-idea  of  the  primitive  rite  of  the 
covenant  of  blood,  an  inter-union  is  symbolized  be- 
tween the  returning  sinner  and  his  God. 

The  aim  of  all  the  Mosaic  sacrifices  was,  a  restored 
communion  with  God ;  and  the  hope  which  runs 
through  them  all  is  of  a  divine-human  inter-union 
through  blood.  "  The  one  purpose  which  is  given  after 
every  sacrifice  in  the  first  chapters  of  Leviticus,"^  says 
Stanley,^  "  is,  that  it  *  shall  make  a  sweet  savoui*  unto  the 
Lord '."    And  Edersheim  says,^  of  all  the  various  sacrir 

1  The  Old  Test,  in  the  Jewish  Church,  Notes  on  Lect.  XII. 

*  See  pages  11,  12,  supra.      ^  Lev.  i:  13,  17  ;  2:  2,  12;  3  :  8,  26, 

*  Christian  Institutions,  Chap.  4. 

6  The  Temple,  Its  Min.  and  Serv.,  p.  82, 


248  777^  BLOOD  COVENANT. 

fices  of  the  ritual :  "  These,  were,  then,  either  sacrifices 
of  communion  with  God,  or  else  [were]  intended  to  re- 
store that  communion  when  it  had  been  disturbed  or 
dimmed  through  sin  and  trespass  :  sacrifices  in  com- 
munion, or  [sacrifices]  for  communion,  with  God.  To 
the  former  class  belong  the  burnt  and  the  peace-offer- 
ings ;  to  the  latter,  the  sin  and  the  trespass  offerings."  ^ 
The  sin-offering,  of  that  ritual,  was,  in  a  sense,  the 
basis  of  the  whole  system  of  sacrifices.  The  chief 
feature  of  that  offering,  was  the  out-flowing  of  its 
blood  Godward.  The  offering  itself  was  a  substitute- 
offering,  for  an  individual  or  for  the  entire  people.  Its 
blood  was  sprinkled  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering,  or  poured  out  at  the  base  of  that  altar,^ — the  al- 
tar of  personal  consecration ;  or,  it  was  sprinkled  within 
the  Holy  Place  toward  the  Most  Holy  Place,' — the 
symbolic  dwelling-place  of  Jehovah :  and  again  it  was 
made  to  touch  the  horns  of  the  altar  of  incense,  which 
sent  up  its  sweet  savor  to  God :  in  every  case,  it  was 
the  outreaching  of  the  sinner  toward  inter-union  with 
God,  in  a  covenant  of  blood. 

r  The  whole  burnt-offering,  of  the  Mosaic  ritual, 
'symbolised  the  entire  surrender  to  God,  of  the  indi- 
vidual or  of  the  congregation,  in  covenant  faithfulness ; 
the  giving  of  one's  self  in  unreserved  trust  to  Him 

"^The  Temple^  Its  Min.  and  Serv.^  p.  82. 
2  Lev.  4:  7,  18,  25,  30,  34.  8  Lev.  4:  6,  7,  17;  16:  14,  15. 


THE   WHOLE  BURNT  OFFERING.  249 

with  whom  the  offerer  desired  to  be  in  loving  oneness. 
It  was  an  indication  of  a  readiness  to  enter  fully  into 
that  inter-union,  which  the  blood-covenant  brought 
about  between  two  who  had  been  separated,  but  who 
were  henceforth  to  be  as  one.  This  offering  also  must  i 
be  made  with  blood ;  for  it  is  blood — which  is  the ' 
life — ^that  gives  the  possibility  of  inter-union.  All  the 
outpoured  blood  of  this  offering,  however,  went  directly 
to  the  altar  upon  which  the  offering  itself  was  laid  ;^  not 
toward  the  Most  Holy  Place,  of  the  Lord's  symbolic 
presence.  This  offering  was  not,  indeed,  understood 
as  in  itself  compassing  inter-union  ;  it  indicated  rather 
a  desire  and  a  readiness  for  inter-union — anew  or 
renewed:  so,  both  the  substitute-body  and  the  substitute- 
blood  were  offered  at  the  altar  of  typical  surrender  and 
consecration.  When  other  sacrifices  were  brought,  the 
burnt-offering  followed  the  sin-offering,  but  preceded 
the  peace-offering  ;^  again,  it  might  be  offered  by  itself. 
He  who  was  of  the  blood-covenant  stock  of  Abraham, 
thereby  sought  restoration  to  the  full  privileges  of  that 
covenant,  to  which  he  had  not  been  wholly  true ;  and 
even  he  who  was  not  of  that  stock  might  in  this  way 
show  his  desire  to  share  in  its  privileges ;  "  for  the  burnt 
offering  was  the  only  sacrifice  which  non-Israelites  were 
permitted  to  bring"  ^  to  the  altar  of  Jehovah. 

iLev.  1 :  5,11,15.    2  Lev.  8:  14-22;  9:  8-22;  14:  19,20;  16:  3-25. 
*  Edersheim's    The  Tempky  Its  Min.  and  Serv.,  p.  ICX). 


250  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Following  the  communion-seeking,  or  the  union- 
seeking,  sin-offering  (with  its  connected,  or  related, 
trespass-offering,  or  guilt-offering),  and  the  self-sur- 
rendering burnt-offering,  there  came  the  joyous  com- 
munion-symbolizing peace-offering,  with  its  type  of 
completed  union,^  in  the  sharing,  by  the  sinner  and  his 
God,  of  the  flesh  of  the  sacrificial  victim  at  a  common 
feast.  And  this  banquet-sacrifice^  corresponds  with  the 
feast  of  inter-communion  which  commonly  follows  the 
primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  and  which  marks 
the  completion  of  the  inter-union  thereby  sought  after. 

All  the  other  sacrifices  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  follow 
in  the  line  of  these  three  classes.  Even  those  which 
are  in  themselves  offered  without  blood,  presuppose 
the  individual's  share  in  the  blood-covenant,  by  the  rite 
of  circumcision,  and  through  the  high  priest's  sin- 
offering  for  the  entire  congregation.  **  The  Rabbis 
attach  ten  comparative  degrees  of  sanctity  to  sacrifices ; 
and  it  is  interesting  to  mark,  that  of  these  the  first  be- 
longed to  the  blood  of  the  sin-offering ;  the  second  to 
the  burnt-offering ;  the  third  to  the  sin-offering  itself; 
and  the  fourth  to  the  trespass-offering."  ^  The  blood 
which  is  to  secure  the  covenant-union — anew  or  re- 

^ "  From  its  derivation  it  might  also  be  rendered,  the  offering  of  com- 
pletion" (Edersheim's  The  Temple^  Its  Min.,  and  Serv.,  p.  106). 
*  See  page  149,  supra. 
*  Edersheim's  The  Temple,  Its  Min.  and  Serv.,  p.  86. 


LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  SYMBOLS.         25 1 

newed — is  of  preeminent  importance.  Then  comes  the 
symbol  of  self-surrendering  devotedness.  First,  the 
possibility  of  inter-union ;  next,  the  expression  of 
readiness  and  desire  for  it.  After  this,  the  other  sacri- 
fices range  themselves  according  to  their  signification, 
until  the  culmination  of  the  series  is  reached  in  the 
joyous  inter-communion  feast  of  the  peace-offering. 

But,  with  all  the  suggestions  of  the  rite  of  blood- 
covenanting,  in  the  sacrifices  of  the  Mosaic  ritual,  there 
were  limitations  in  the  correspondences  of  that  rite  in 
those  sacrifices,  which  mark  the  incompleteness  of 
their  symbolism,  and  which  point  to  better  things  to 
come.  In  the  primitive  blood-covenant  rite  itself,  both 
parties  receive,  and  partake  of,  the  blood  which  be- 
comes common  to  the  two.  In  all  the  outside  religions 
of  the  world,  where  men  reach  out  after  a  divine- 
human  inter-union  through  substitute-blood,  the  offerer 
drinks  of  the  sacrificial  blood,  or  of  something  which 
stands  for  it;  and  so  he  is  supposed  to  share  the  nature 
of  the  God  with  whom  he  thus  covenants  and  inter- 
unites.  In  the  Mosaic  ritual,  however,  all  drink-offer- 
ings of  blood  were  forbidden  to  him  who  would  enter 
into  covenant  with  God ;  he  might  not  taste  of  the 
blood.  He  might,  it  is  true,  look  forward,  by  faith,  to 
an  ultimate  sharing  of  the  divine  nature  ;  and  in  antici- 
pation of  that  inter-union,  he  could  enjoy  a  symbolic 
inter-communion  with  God,  by  partaking  of  the  peace- 


252  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

offerings  at  the  table  of  his  Lord  ;  but  as  yet  the  sacri- 
ficial offering  which  could  supply  to  his  death-smitten 
nature  the  vivifying  blood  of  an  everlasting  covenant, 
was  not  disclosed  to  him/ 

Even  the  substitute  blood  which  he  presented  at  the 
altar,  as  he  came  with  his  outreaching  after  a  blood- 
covenant  union  with  the  Lord,  did  not  secure  to  him 
direct  personal  access  to  the  symbolic  earthly  dwelling- 
place  of  the  Lord.  That  blood  could  be  poured  out  at 
the  base  of  the  altar  of  consecration,  or  it  could  be 
sprinkled  upon  its  horns.  That  blood  could,  on  occa- 
sions be  sprinkled  before  the  veil  of  the  Most  Holy 
Place ;  or  could  touch  the  horns  of  the  altar  of  sweet 
incense.  But  that  blood  could  never  pass  that  veil 
which  guarded  the  place  of  the  Lord's  symbolic 
presence,  save  once  in  a  year  when  the  high-priest,  all 
by  himself,  and  that  not  without  a  show  of  his  own 
unfitness  for  the  mission,  went  in  thither,  to  sprinkle 
the  substitute  blood  before  the  mercy-seat;  "the  Holy 
Ghost  this  signifying,  that  the  way  into  the  Holy  Place 
hath  not  yet  been  manifest^";  that  the  substitute 
"  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  "  ^  cannot  be  a  means  of 
man's  inter-union  with  God. 

Lest,  indeed,  the  Israelite  should  believe  that  a  blood- 
covenant  union  was  really  secured  with  God,  rather 
than  typified,  through  these  prescribed  symbolic  sacri- 
iPsa.  16:  4,  5.  3Heb.  9:  8.  'Heb.  10:  4. 


THE  SPIRIT  ABOVE   THE  LETTER.       253 

fices  and  their  sharing,  he  was  repeatedly  warned 
against  that  fatal  error,  and  was  taught  that  his  true 
covenanting  must  be  by  a  faith-filled  recognition  of  the 
symbolism  of  these  substitute  agencies  ;  and  by  the  im- 
plicit surrender  of  himself,  in  loving  trust,  to  Him  who 
had  ordained  them  as  symbols.     Thus  in  the  Psalms  : 

"  Hear,  O  my  people,  and  I  will  speak ; 

0  Israel,  and  I  will  testify  unto  thee  : 

1  am  God,  even  thy  God, 

I  will  not  reprove  thee  for  thy  sacrifices ; 

And  thy  burnt-offerings  are  continually  before  me.     .     •     • 

Will  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls. 

Or  drink  the  blood  of  goats? 

Offer  unto  God  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving ; 

And  pay  thy  vows  unto  the  Most  High : 

And  call  upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble ; 

I  will  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  glorify  me. 

"  But  unto  the  wicked,  God  saith : 
What  hast  thou  to  do  to  declare  my  statutes. 
And  that  thou  hast  taken  my  covenant  in  thy  mouth  ? 
Seeing  thou  hatest  instruction, 
And  castest  my  words  behind  thee."  ^ 

Again,  in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  : 
"  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ? 
Saith  the  Lord: 
I  am  full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed 

beasts ; 
And  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or 
of  he-goats. 

iPsa.  50:  7-17. 


254  I^HE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

When  ye  come  to  appear  before  me, 

Who  hath  required  this  at  your  hand,  to  tread  my  courts  ? 

Bring  no  more  vain  oblations ; 

Incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me. 

Wash  you,  make  you  clean ; 

Put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes ; 

Cease  to  do  evil: 

Learn  to  do  well; 

Seek  judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed; 

Judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow."  ^ 

And  with  this  very  warning  against  a  false  reliance  on 
the  symbols  themselves,  the  same  prophet  gives  as- 
surance of  better  things  in  store  for  all  those  who  are 
in  true  blood-covenant  with  God;  even  though  they 
be  not  of  the  peculiar  people  of  Abraham's  natural 
descent.  Foretelling  the  future,  when  the  types  of 
the  sacrifice  shall  be  realized,  he  says : 

"And  in  this  mountain  shall  the  Lord  of  Hosts  make  unto 
all  peoples 
A  feast  of  fat  things, 
A  feast  of  wine  on  the  lees ; 
Of  fat  things  full  of  marrow, 
Of  wines  on  the  lees  well  refined."  ' 

The  feast  of  inter-communion  shall  be  sure,  when  the 
blood-covenant  of  inter-union  is  complete. 
Again,  by  Jeremiah : 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel : 
Add  your  burnt-offerings  unto  your  sacrifices,  and  eat  ye  flesh. 

*  Isaiah  i :  1 1-17.  2  Isa.  25  :  6. 


THE   TRUE  LESSON  OF  THE  ALTAR.       255 

[But  remember  that  that  is  not  the  completion  of  a 
covenant  with  me]. 

For  I  spake  not  unto  your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them, 
In  the  day  that  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
Concerning  burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices. 

[As  if  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  were  the  all  im- 
portant thing] ; 

But  this  thing  I  commanded  them,  saying, 

Hearken  unto  my  voice. 

And  I  will  be  your  God, 

And  ye  shall  be  my  people; 

And  walk  ye  in  all  the  way  that  I  command  you, 

That  it  may  be  well  with  you."  ^ 

Once  more,  by  Hosea : 

"  O  Ephraim,  what  shall  I  do  unto  thee  ? 
O  Judah,  what  shall  I  do  unto  thee  ? 
For  your  goodness  is  as  a  morning  cloud, 
And  as  the  dew  that  goeth  early  away.     .     .     . 
For  I  desire  mercy  and  not  sacrifice ; 
And  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt-offerings. 
But  they  like  Adam  have  transgressed  the  covenant ; 

[or,  as  the  Revisers'  "  margin"  would  render  it, 

"But  they  are  as  men  that  have  transgressed  a  covenant"  :] 
There  have  they  dealt  treacherously  against  me  "  " 

[Therein  have  they  proved  unfaithful  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  blood-covenant  on  which  they  assumed 
to  be  resting,  in  their  sacrifices]. 

1  Jer.  7 :  21-23.  '  Hosea  6  :  4-7. 


256  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

And  so,  all  the  way  along  through  the  prophets,  in 
repeated  emphasis  of  the  incompleteness  of  the  blood- 
covenanting  symbols  in  the  ritual  sacrifices. 

Concerning  the  very  rite  of  circumcision,  which  was 
the  token  of  Abraham's  covenant  of  blood-friendship 
with  the  Lord,  the  Israelites  were  taught  that  its  spir- 
itual value  was  not  in  the  formal  surrender  of  a  bit  of 
flesh,  and  a  few  drops  of  blood,  in  ceremonial  devoted- 
ness  to  God,  but  in  its  symbolism  of  the  implicit 
surrender  of  the  whole  life  and  being,  in  hearty  cove- 
nant with  God.  "  Behold,  unto  the  Lord  thy  God 
belongeth  the  heaven,  and  the  heaven  of  heavens,  the 
earth  with  all  that  therein  is.  Only  the  Lord  had  a 
delight  in  thy  fathers  to  love  them,  and  he  chose  their 
seed  after  them,  even  you  above  all  peoples  as  at  this 
day.  Circumcise  therefore  the  foreskin  of  your  heart, 
and  be  no  more  stiff-necked."  ^  "And  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  when  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee,  the 
blessings  and  the  curse  which  I  have  set  before  thee,  and 
thou  shalt  call  them  to  mind  among  all  the  nations, 
whither  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  driven  thee,  and  shalt  re- 
turn unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  shalt  obey  his  voice 
according  to  all  that  I  command  thee  this  day,  thou 
and  thy  children,  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul ;  that  then  the  Lord  thy  God  will  turn  thy  captivity, 
and  have  compassion  upon  thee,  and  will  return  and 

^Deut.  10:  14-16. 


WRITTEN  ON  THE  HEART.  257 

gather  thee  from  all  the  peoples,  whither  the  Lord  thy 
God  hath  scattered  thee.  .  .  .  And  the  Lord  thy 
God  will  circumcise  thine  heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy 
seed,  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  that  thou  mayest  live."  ^  And 
when  this  has  come  to  pass,  the  true  seed  of  Abra- 
ham,^ circumcised  in  heart,^  shall  be  in  the  covenant 
of  blood-friendship  with  God. 

So,  also,  with  the  phylacteries,  as  the  record  of  the 
blood-covenant  of  the  passover,  they  had  a  value  only 
as  they  represented  a  heart-remembrance  of  that  cove- 
nant, by  their  wearers.  Says  Solomon,  in  the  guise 
of  Wisdom. 

**  My  son,  forget  not  my  law ; 
But  let  thine  heart  keep  my  commandments.    .   .   . 
Let  not  mercy  and  truth  forsake  thee  : 
Bind  them  about  thy  neck ; 
Write  them  upon  the  table  of  thy  heart ; 
So  shalt  thou  find  favor  and  good  understanding 
In  the  sight  of  God  and  man."  * 

"  Keep  my  commandments  and  live ; 
And  my  law  as  the  apple  of  thine  eye. 
Bind  them  upon  thy  fingers ; 
Write  them  upon  the  table  of  thine  heart."  * 

And  the  prophet  Jeremiah  foretells  the  recognition  of 

this  truth  in  the  coming  day  of  better  things : 

1  Deut.  30  :  1-6.  2  Gal.  3  :  7-9 ;  Rom.  4:11,  12. 

*  Rom.  2  :  26-29  J  Phil.  Z''  Z'    *  P^ov.  3  :  1-4.     *  Prov.  7  :  2,  3. 
22* 


258  THE  BLOOD  COVENANT, 

"  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord, 
That  I  will  make  a  new  covenant 
With  the  house  of  Israel  and  with  the  house  of  Judah: 
Not  according  to  the  covenant  that  I  made  with  their  fathers. 
In  the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand. 
To  bring  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt 

[That  covenant  was  the  blood-covenant  of  the  pass- 
over  ;  of  which  the  phylacteries  were  a  token.] 

Which  my  covenant  they  brake, 

Although  I  was  an  husband  unto  them  [a  lord  over  them]  saith 

the  Lord; 
But  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of 

Israel, 
After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord  ; 
I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts, 
And  in  their  heart  will  I  write  it; 

[Instead  of  its  being  written  as  now,  outside  of  them, 
on  their  hand  and  on  their  forehead.] 

And  I  will  be  their  God, 

And  they  shall  be  my  people.     .     .     . 

For  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity. 

And  their  sin  will  I  remember  no  more."  ^ 

The  blood-covenant  symbols  of  the  Mosaic  law,  all 
pointed  to  the  possibility  of  a  union  of  man's  spiritual 
nature  with  God ;  but  they  did  not  in  themselves  either 
assure  or  indicate  that  union  as  already  accomplished; 
nor  did  they  point  the  way  to  it,  as  yet  made  clear. 
They  were  only  "  a  shadow  of  the  things  to  come."  ^ 

1  Jer.  31 :  31-34.  '  Col.  2 :  17. 


BLOOD  FOR  BLOOD.  259 

Another  gleam  of  the  primitive  truth,  that  blood  is 
life  and  not  death,  and  that  the  transference  of  blood 
is  the  transference  of  life,  is  found  in  the  various  Mosaic 
references  to  the  goel  (Sxi),  the  person  who  is  autho- 
rized to  obtain  blood  for  blood  as  an  act  of  justice,  in 
the  East.  And  another  proof  of  the  prevailing  error 
in  the  Western  mind,  through  confounding  blood  with 
death,  and  justice  with  punishment,  is  the  commoji 
rendering  of  the  term  goel,  as  "  avenger,"  ^  or  "  re- 
venger,"^ in  our  English  Bible,  wherever  that  term 
applies  to  the  balancing  of  a  blood  account ;  although 
the  same  Hebrew  word  is  in  other  connections  com- 
monly translated  "redeemer,"^  or  "ransomer."* 

Lexicographers  are  confused  over  the  original  im- 
port of  the  word  goel;^  all  the  more,  because  of  this 
confusion  in  their  minds  over  the  import  of  blood,  in 
its  relation  to  death  and  to  justice.  But  it  is  agreed 
on  all  hands,  that,  as  a  term,  the  word  was,  in  the  East, 
applied  to  that  kinsman  whose  duty  it  was  to  secure 

1  Num.  35  :  12 ;  Deut.  19  :  6,  12 ;  Josh.  20 :  3,  5,  9. 
*Nuin.  35:  19,  21,  24,  25,  27;  2  Sam.  14:  11. 
3  Job  19:  25;  Psa.  19:  14;    78:  35;    Prov.  23:  II;    Isa.  41 :  14; 
43  :  14 ;  44 :  6,  24 ;  47  :  4  ;  48  :  17 ;  49  =  7,  26 ;  54  :  5,  8 ;  59 :  20; 
60:  16;  63:  16;  Jer.  50:  34. 

*Comp.  Isa.  51  :  lo;  Jer,  31  :  II. 
s  "A  term  of  which   the  original  import  is  uncertain.     The  very 
obscurity  of  its  etymology  testifies  to  the  antiquity  of  the  office  which  it 
denotes."     {Speaker's  Com.  at  Num.  35  :  12.) 


26o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

justice  to  the  injured,  and  to  restore,  as  it  were,  a  nor- 
mal balance  to  the  disturbed  family  relations.  Oehler 
well  defines  the  goel,  as  "  that  particular  relative  whose 
special  duty  it  was  to  restore  the  violated  family  integ- 
rity, who  had  to  redeem  not  only  landed  property  that 
had  been  alienated  from  the  family  (Lev.  25:25  ff),  or  a 
member  of  the  family  that  [who]  had  fallen  into  slavery 
(Lev.  25  :  47  ff.),  but  also  the  blood  that  had  been  taken 
away  from  the  family  by  murder."  ^  Hence,  in  the  event 
of  a  depletion  of  the  family  by  the  loss  of  blood — ^the  loss 
of  a  life — the  goel  had  a  responsibility  of  securing  to  the 
family  an  equivalent  of  that  loss,  by  other  blood,  or  by 
an  agreed  payment  for  its  value.  His  mission  was  not 
vengeance,  but  equity.  He  was  not  an  avenger,  but  a 
redeemer,  a  restorer,  a  balancer.  And  in  that  light,  and 
in  that  light  alone,  are  all  the  Oriental  customs  in  con- 
nection with  blood-cancelling  seen  to  be  consistent. 

All  through  the  East,  there  are  regularly  fixed  tariffs 
for  blood-cancelling ;  as  if  in  recognition  of  the  rela- 
tive loss  to  a  family,  of  one  or  another  of  its  support- 
ing members.^     This  idea,  of  the  differences  in  ran- 

1  Cited  from  Herzog's  B.  Cycl.,  in  Keil  and  Delitzsch's  Bib.  Com.  on 
the  Pent.,  at  Num.  35  :  9-34. 

2  See  Niebuhr's  Beschreibung  von  Arabien,  p.  32  f. ;  Burckhardt's 
Beduinen  und  Wahaby,  pp.  1 19-127;  Lane's  Thousand  and  One 
Nights,  I.,  431,  note;  Pierotti's  Customs  and  Traditions  of  Palestine, 
pp.  220-227 ;  Mrs.  Finn's  «*  The  Fellaheen  of  Palestine,"  in  Surv.  of 

West  Pal.,  "  Special  Papers,"  pp.  342-346. 


BLOOD  OR  MILK.  261 

soming-value  between  different  members  of  the  family, 
is  recognized,  in  the  Mosaic  standards  of  ritual-ran- 
som;^ although  the  accepting  of  a  ransom  for  the 
blood  of  a  blood-spiller  was  specifically  forbidden  in 
the  Mosaic  law.^  This  prohibition,  in  itself,  however, 
seems  to  be  a  limitation  of  the  privileges  of  the  goel, 
as  before  understood  in  the  East.  The  Quran,  on  the 
other  hand,  formally  authorizes  the  settlement  of  man- 
slaughter damages  by  proper  payments.^ 

Throughout  Arabia,  and  Syria,  and  in  various  parts 
of  Africa,'*  the  first  question  to  be  considered  in  any 
case  of  unlawful  blood-shedding  is,  whether  the  loss 
life  shall  be  restored — or  balanced — by  blood,  or  by 
some  equivalent  of  blood.  Von  Wrede,  says  of  the 
custom  of  the  Arabs,  in  concluding  a  peace,  after  tribal 
hostilities  :  "  If  one  party  has  more  slain  than  the  other, 
the  shaykh  on  whose  side  the  advantage  lies,  says  [to 
the  other  shaykh] :  '  Choose  between  blood  and  milk ' 
[between  life,  and  the  means  of  sustaining  life] ;  which 
is  as  much  as  to  say,  that  he  may  [either]  avenge  the 
fallen  [take  life  for  life];  or  accept  blood-money."^ 
Mrs.  Finn  says,  similarly,  of  the  close  of  a  combat  in 

1  Comp.  Exod.  21 :  18-27  5  22  :  14-17 ;  Lev.  27  :  1-8. 

'Num.  36:  30-34.  3  Sooras,  2  and  17. 

*  Livingstone  and  Stanley  on  several  occasions,  made  payments,  or  had 

them  made,  to  avoid  a  conflict  on  a  question  of  blood.  See,  e.  g.  Trav.  and 

Res.  in  So.  Africa,  pp.  390,  368-370,  482  f..  The  Congo,  I.,  520-527. 

^  Reise  in  Hadhramaut,  p.  199. 


262  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Palestine :  ''A  computation  is  generally  made  of  the 
losses  on  either  side  by  death,  wounds,  etc.,  and  the 
balance  is  paid  to  the  victors."^  Burton  describes  simi- 
larly the  custom  in  Arabia,^ 

It  is  the  same  in  individual  cases,  as  in  tribal  con- 
flicts. An  accepted  payment  for  blood  fully  restores 
the  balance  between  the  aggrieved  parties  and  the 
slayer.  As  Pierotti  says :  **  This  charm  will  teach  the 
Arab  to  grasp  readily  the  hands  of  the  slayer  of  his 
father  or  his  son,  saying,  *  Such  an  one  has  killed  my 
father,  but  he  has  paid  me  the  price  of  his  blood.' "^ 
This  in  itself  shows,  that  it  is  not  revenge,  but  restitu- 
tion, that  is  sought  after  by  the  goel ;  that  he  is  not 
the  blood-avenger,  but  the  blood-balancer. 

It  is  true  that,  still,  in  some  instances,  all  money  pay- 
ment for  blood  is  refused ;  but  the  avowed  motive  in 
such  a  case  is  the  holding  of  life  as  above  price — the 
very  idea  which  the  Mosaic  law  emphasized.  Thus 
Burton  tells  of  the  excited  Bed'ween  mother  who  dashes 
the  proffered  blood-money  to  the  ground,  swearing 
"  by  Allah,  that  she  will  not  eat  her  son's  blood."  ^  And 
even  where  the  blood  of  the  slayer  is  insisted  on,  there 
are  often  found  indications  that  the  purpose  of  this 
choice  rests  on  the  primitive  belief  that  the  lost  life  is 

1  Surv.  of  West.  PaL,  "  Special  Papers,"  p.  342. 

2  A  Pilgrimage  to  Alec,  and  Med.,  357, 

*  Cmt.  and  Trad,  of  Pal.,  p.  221.  ^'A  Pilgrimage,  p.  367. 


BIBLE  ILLUSTRATIONS.  263 

made  good  to  the  depleted  family  by  the  newly  re- 
ceived blood.  ^  Thus,  in  the  region  of  Abyssinia,  the 
blood  of  the  slayer  is  drunk  by  the  relatives  of  the  one 
first  slain ;  ^  and,  in  Palestine,  when  the  goel  has  shed 
the  blood  of  an  unlawful  slayer,  those  who  were  the 
losers  of  blood  by  that  slayer  dip  their  handkerchiefs 
in  his  blood,  and  so  obtain  their  portion  of  his  life.^ 

In  short,  apart  from  the  specific  guards  thrown 
around  the  mission  of  the  goel,  in  the  interests  of  jus- 
tice, by  the  requirements  of  the  Mosaic  law,  it  is  evi- 
dent, that  the  primal  idea  of  the  goel's  mission  was  to 
restore  life  for  life,  or  to  secure  the  adjusted  equivalent 
of  a  lost  life ;  not  to  wreak  vengeance,  nor  yet  to  mete 
out  punishment.  The  calling  of  the  goel,  in  our  Eng- 
lish Bible,  a  "  revenger  "  of  blood,  is  a  result  of  the 
wide-spread  and  deep-rooted  error  concerning  the 
primitive  and  Oriental  idea  of  blood  and  its  value; 
and  that  unfortunate  translation  tends  to  the  perpetua- 
tion of  this  error. 

8.    THE   PRIMITIVE   RITE   ILLUSTRATED. 

Because  the  primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting  was 
well  known  in  the  Lands  of  the  Bible,  at  the  time  of 
the  writing  of  the  Bible,  for  that  very  reason,  we  are 
not  to  look  to  the  Bible  for  a  specific  explanation  of 

*See  pages  126-133,  supra.  2  See  page  132  f.,  supra. 

•Pierotti's  Cust.  and  Trad,  of  Pal  p.  216. 


264  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

the  rite  itself,  even  where  there  are  incidental  references 
in  the  Bible  to  the  rite  and  its  observances ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  are  to  find  an  explanation  of  the 
biblical  illustrations  of  the  primitive  rite,  in  the  under- 
standing of  that  rite  which  we  gain  from  outside 
sources.  In  this  way,  we  are  enabled  to  see  in  the 
Bible  much  that  otherwise  would  be  lost  sight  of 

The  word  for  "  covenant,"  in  the  Hebrew,  bereeth 
(^'1|),  is  commonly,  so  employed,  in  the  sacred  text, 
as  to  have  the  apparent  meaning  of  a  thing  "  cut,"  as 
apart  from,  or  as  in  addition  to,  its  primary  meaning 
of  a  thing  "  eaten."  ^  This  fact  has  been  a  source  of 
confusion  to  lexicographers.^  But,  when  we  consider 
that  the  primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting  was  by 
cutting  into  the  flesh  in  order  to  the  tasting  of  the 
blood,  and  that  a  feast  was  always  an  accompaniment 
of  the  rite,  if,  indeed,  it  were  not  an  integral  portion 
of  it,  the  two-fold  meaning  of  **  cutting"  and  "eating" 
attaches  obviously  to  the  term  "  covenant " ;  as  the 
terms  "  carving,"  and  "  giving  to  eat,"  are  often  used 
interchangeably,  with  reference  to  dining;  or  as  we 
speak  of  a  "  cut  of  beef"  as  the  portion  for  a  table. 

The  earliest  Bible  reference  to  a  specific  covenant 
between  individuals,  is  in  the  mention,  at  Genesis 
14:  13,  of  Mamre,  Eshcol,  and   Aner,  the  Amorites, 

*Comp.  Gen.  15  :  18;  Jer.  34:  18;  2  Sam.  12  :  17. 
'  See  Gesenius,  Fuerst,  Cocceius,  s.  v. 


AT  THE   WELLS  OF  BEER-SHEBA.  265 

who  were  in  covenant  with — literally,  were  "  masters 
of  the  covenant  of" — "Abram  the  Hebrew."  After 
this,  comes  the  record  of  a  covenant  between  Abraham 
and  Abimelech,  at  the  wells  of  Beer-sheba.  Abime- 
lech  sought  that  covenant ;  he  sought  it  because  of  his 
faith  in  Abraham's  God.  "God  is  with  thee  in  all  that 
thou  doest,"  he  said  :  "  Now,  therefore,  swear  unto  me 
here  by  God,  that  thou  wilt  not  deal  falsely  with  me, 
nor  with  my  son,  nor  with  my  son's  son  :  but  accord- 
ing to  the  kindness  that  I  have  done  unto  thee,  thou 
shalt  do  unto  me,  and  to  the  land  wherein  thou  hast 
sojourned.  And  Abraham  said,  I  will  swear."  ^  Then 
came  the  giving  of  gifts  by  Abraham,  according  to  the 
practice  which  seems  universal  in  connection  with  this 
rite,  in  our  own  day.^  "And  Abraham  took  sheep 
and  oxen,  and  gave  them  unto  Abimelech."  And  they 
two  "  made  a  covenant," — or,  as  the  Hebrew  is,  "  they 
two  cut  a  covenant."  This  covenant,  thus  cut  between 
Abraham  and  Abimelech — patriarchs  and  sovereigns  as 
they  were — was  for  themselves  and  for  their  posterity. 
As  to  the  manner  of  its  making,  we  have  a  right  to 
infer,  from  all  that  we  know  of  the  manner  of  such 
covenant-making  among  the  people  of  their  part  of  the 
world,  in  the  earliest  days  of  recorded  history. 

Herodotus,  who  goes  back  more  than  two-thirds  of 
the  way  to  Abraham,  says,  that  when  the  Arabians 

*Gen.  21 :  22-24.      ^g^g  pages  14,  16,  20,  22,  25,  27,  etc.,  supra. 
23 


266  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

would  covenant  together,  a  third  man,  standing  be- 
tween the  two,  cuts,  with  a  sharp  stone,  the  inside  of 
the  hands  of  both,  and  lets  the  blood  therefrom  drop 
on  seven  stones  which  are  between  the  two  parties.^ 
Phicol,  the  captain  of  Abimelech's  host,  was  present, 
as  a  third  man,  when  the  covenant  was  cut  between 
Abimelech  and  Abraham ;  at  Beer-sheba — the  Well 
of  the  Seven,  or  the  Well  of  the  Oath.^  Instead  of 
seven  stones  as  a  "heap  of  witness"^  between  the  two 
in  this  covenanting, "  seven  ewe  lambs  "  were  set  apart 
by  Abraham,  that  they  might  "  be  a  witness  "^ — a  sym- 
bolic witness  to  this  transaction. 

In  the  primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  as  it  is 
practised  in  some  parts  of  the  East,  to  the  present 
time,  in  addition  to  other  symbolic  witnesses  of  the 
rite,  a  tree  is  planted  by  the  covenanting  parties,  "which 
remains  and  grows  as  a  witness  of  their  contract."^  So 
\  it  was,  in  the  days  of  Abraham.  "And  Abraham 
planted  a  tamarisk  tree  in  Beer-sheba,  and  called 
there  on  the  name  of  the  Everlasting  God.  And 
Abraham  sojourned  [was  a  sojourner]  in  the  land  of 
the  Philistines  many  days  "  ^ — while  that  tree,  doubt- 
less, remained  and  grew  as  a  witness  of  his  blood- 
covenant  compact  with  Abimelech  the  ruler  of  the 

1  See  page  47,  supra.  'Gen.  21  :  31. 

^Comp.  Gen.  31 :  44-47.  *Gen.  21  :  30. 

^See  page  53,  supra,  'Gen.  21  :  33. 


CUTTING  AND  STRIKING.  267 

Philistines.^  Abimelech  was,  as  it  were,  the  first-fruits 
of  the  "  nations  "^  who  were  to  have  a  blessing  through 
the  covenanted  friend  of  God. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  when  Herodotus  de- 
scribes the  Scythians*  mode  of  drinking  each  other's 
mingled  blood,  in  their  covenanting,  he  tells  of  their 
"  cutting  covenant "  by  "  striking  the  body  "  of  the  cove- 
nanting party.  In  this  case,  he  employs  the  words 
tamnomenon  (raiivoiiivwv)  "  cutting,"  and  tupsantes  (ry- 
(pavTs<s)  "striking,"  which  are  the  correspondents,  on 
the  one  hand  of  the  Hebrew  karath  (nn^)  "  to  cut," 
and  on  the  other  hand  of  the  Latin /mr^,  "to  strike;" 
as  applied  to  covenant  making.^  And  this  would 
seem  to  make  a  tri-lingual  "  Rosetta  Stone "  of  this 
statement  by  Herodotus,  as  showing  that  the  Hebrew 
"  cutting  "  of  the  covenant,  and  the  Latin  "  striking  " 
of  the  covenant,  is  the  Greek,  the  Arabian,  the 
Scythian,  and  the  universal  primitive,  method  of  cove- 
nanting, by  cutting  into,  or  by  striking,  the  flesh  of  a 
person  covenanting ;  in  order  that  another  may  become 
a  possessor  of  his  blood,  and  a  partaker  of  his  life. 

Yet  later,  at  the  same  Well  of  the  Seven,  another 
Abimelech  came  down  from  Gerar,  with  "  Ahuzzath 
his  friend,  and  Phicol  the  captain  of  his  host,"  and, 

*See  references  to  the  blood-stained   covenant-tree,  in  Appendix, 
infra. 
'  Gen.  22 :  18.  »See  page  61  f.,  supra. 


268  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

prompted  by  faith,  sought  a  renewal  of  the  covenant 
with  the  house  of  Abraham.^  It  is  not  specifically 
declared  that  Abimelech  and  Isaac  cut  a  covenant  to- 
gether ;  but  it  is  said  that  "  they  did  eat  and  drink"  in 
token  of  their  covenant  relations,  and  that  they  "sware 
one  to  another."^  Apparently  they  either  cut  a  new 
covenant,  or  they  confirmed  one  which  their  fathers 
had  cut.^ 

When  Jacob  and  Laban  covenanted  together,  in  "  the 
mountain  [the  hill-country]  of  Gilead,"  before  their 
final  separation,  they  had  their  stone-heap  of  witness 
between  them  ;  such  as  Herodotus  says  the  Arabs 
were  accustomed  to  anoint  with  their  own  blood,  in 
their  covenanting  by  blood,  in  his  day ;  ^  for  Jacob,  per- 
haps, had  more  tolerance  than  Abraham,  for  perverted 
religious  symbols.^  "And  now  let  us  cut  a  covenant,  I 
and  thou,"  said  Laban ;  "  and  let  it  be  for  a  witness 
between  me  and  thee.  And  Jacob  took  a  stone,  and 
set  it  up  for  a  pillar  [a  pillar  instead  of  a  tree].  And 
Jacob  said  unto  his  brethren.  Gather  stones ;  and  they 
took  stones,  and  made  an  heap  :  and  they  did  eat  there 
on  the  heap  [the  Revisers  have  translated  this,  by  the 
heap"].^     And  Laban  called  it  Jegar-sahadutha :  but 

*  Gen.  26  :  25-29.        '  Gen.  26  :  30,  31.        ^See  page  62,  supra. 

*Comp.  Gen.  12:  6-8;  28:  18-22;  31  :  19-36. 
*Mr.  Forbes  tells  of  a  custom,  in  Sumatra,  of  taking  a  binding  oath, 
above  the  grave  of  the  original  patriarch  of  the  Passumah.     An  animal 


DAVID  AND  JONATHAN.  269 

Jacob  called  it  Gilead.  And  Laban  said,  This  heap  is 
witness  between  me  and  thee  this  day.  .  .  .  God 
is  witness  betwixt  me  and  thee.  .  .  .  The  God  of 
Abraham  and  the  God  of  Nahor,  the  God  of  their 
father,  judge  betwixt  us.  And  Jacob  sware  by  the 
Fear  of  his  father  Isaac.  And  Jacob  offered  a  sacrifice 
in  the  mountain,  and  called  his  brethren  to  eat  bread : 
and  they  did  eat  bread."  ^  Here  again,  the  cutting  of 
the  covenant,  and  the  sharing  of  a  feast  in  connection 
with  the  rite, — the  "  cutting"  and  the "  eating" — are  in 
accordance  with  all  that  we  know  of  the  primitive  rite, 
of  blood-covenanting  in  the  East,  in  earlier  and  in 
later  times. 

Yet  more  explicit  is  the  description  of  the  blood- 
covenanting  which  brought  into  loving  unity,  David 
and  Jonathan.  It  was  when  the  faith-filled  heroism 
of  the  stripling  shepherd-boy  was  thrilling  all  Israel 
with  grateful  admiration,  that  David  was  brought  into 
the  royal  presence  of  Saul,  and  of  Saul's  more  than 
royal  hero-son,  Jonathan,  to  receive  the  thanks  of  the 

is  sacrificed,  cut  into  small  pieces,  and  cooked  in  a  pot.  "  Then  he  who 
is  to  take  the  oath,  holding  his  hand,  or  a  long  kriss-,  of  the  finest  sort, 
over  the  grave-stone,  and  over  the  cooked  animal,  says :  *  If  such  and 
such  be  not  the  case,  may  I  be  afflicted  with  the  worst  evils.'  The 
whole  of  the  company  then  partake  of  the  food  "  {^A  Naturalises  Wan- 
derings, p.  198  f.).  This  seems  to  be  a  vestige  of  the  primitive  custom 
of  eating  on  the  witness-heap  of  an  oath. 

1  Gen.  31 :  44-54. 
23* 


270  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

king  for  the  rescue  of  the  tarnished  honor  of  the 
Israehtish  host.  Modestly,  David  gave  answer  to  the 
question  of  the  king.  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when  he 
had  made  an  end  of  speaking  unto  Saul,  that  the  soul 
of  Jonathan  was  knit  with  the  soul  of  David,  and 
Jonathan  loved  him  as  his  own  soul."  "  Then  Jona- 
than and  David  cut  a  covenant,  because  he  [Jonathan] 
loved  him  [David]  as  his  own  soul  [as  his  own  life,  his 
own  blood]." ^  Then  followed  that  gift  of  raiment  and 
of  arms  which  was  a  frequent  accompaniment  of  blood- 
covenanting.^  "And  Jonathan  stripped  himself  of  the 
robe  that  was  upon  him,  and  gave  it  to  David,  and  his 
apparel,  even  to  his  sword,  and  to  his  bow,  and  to  his 
girdle."^  From  that  hour  the  hearts  of  David  and 
Jonathan  were  as  one.  Jonathan  could  turn  away  from 
father  and  mother,  and  could  repress  all  personal  ambi- 
tion, and  all  purely  selfish  longings,  in  proof  of  his 
loving  fidelity  to  him  who  was  dear  to  him  as  his  own 
blood.*  His  love  for  David  was  "  wonderful,  passing 
the  love  of  women."  ^ 

Nor  was  this  loving  compact  between  Jonathan  and 
David  for  theipselves  alone.  It  was  for  their  posterity 
as  well.^  "  The  Lord  be  with  thee,  as  he  hath  been 
with  my  father,"    said  Jonathan.     "  And  thou  shalt 

*i  Sam.  18  :  1-3.  2 Seepages  14,  24,  28,  35  f.,  62,  supra. 

'i  Sam.  18:  4;  20:  I-13.  *i  Sam.  19:  1-7. 

*  2  Sam.  1 :  26.  «  See  pages  10,  53,  supra. 


LEG  A  CIES  OF  FRIENDSHIP.  2  7 1 

not  only  while  yet  I  live  shew  me  the  kindness  of  the 
Lord,  that  I  die  not :  but  also  thou  shalt  not  cut  off 
thy  kindness  from  my  house  for  ever :  no,  not  [even] 
when  the  Lord  hath  cut  off  the  enemies  of  David  every 
one  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  So  Jonathan  cut  a 
covenant  with  the  house  of  David,  saying  [as  in  the 
imprecations  of  a  blood-covenant].  And  the  Lord  shall 
require  it  [fidelity  to  this  covenant]  at  the  hand  of 
David's  enemies.  And  Jonathan  caused  David  to 
swear  again,  for  the  love  he  had  to  him :  for  he  loved 
him  as  he  loved  his  own  soul  [his  own  life,  his  own 
blood]."  ^  And  years  afterward,  when  the  Lord  had 
given  David  rest  from  all  his  enemies  around  about  him, 
the  memory  of  that  blood-covenant  pledge  came  back 
to  him  ;  "  and  David  said.  Is  there  yet  any  that  is  left 
of  the  house  of  Saul,  that  I  may  shew  him  kindness 
for  Jonathan's  sake?"^  The  seating  of  lame  Mephi- 
bosheth  at  David's  royal  table,^  was  an  illustration  of 
the  unfailing  obligation  of  the  primitive  covenant  of 
blood ;  which  had  bound  together  David  and  Jona- 
than, for  themselves  and  for  theirs  forever. 

9.    THE   BLOOD   COVENANT   IN   THE   GOSPELS. 

And  now  from  David,  to  David's  greater  Son  ;  from 
type  to  anti-type ;  from  symbol  and  prophecy,  to  re- 
ality and  fruition. 

il  Sam.  20:  13-17.       ^2  Sam.  7:159:1.       '2  Sam.  9:  2-13. 


2  72  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Death  had  passed  upon  all  men.  Yet  in  the  hearts 
of  the  death-smitten  there  was  still  a  longing  for  life. 
Sin-leprous  souls  yearned  for  that  in-flow  of  new  be- 
ing, which  could  come  only  through  inter-union  with 
the  divine  nature,  in  oneness  of  life  with  the  Author 
and  Source  of  all  life.  Revelation  and  prophecy  had 
assured  the  possibility  and  the  hope  of  such  inter- 
union.  Rite  and  ceremony  and  symbol,  the  wide- 
world  over,  signified  man's  desire,  and  man's  expecta- 
tion, of  covenanted  access  to  God,  through  personal 
surrender,  and  through  life-giving,  life-representing 
blood. 

But,  where-  men  yielded  up  unauthorized  offerings, 
even  of  their  own  blood,  or  of  the  very  lives  of  their 
first-born,  they  confessed  themselves  unsatisfied  with 
their  attitude  God- ward ;  and,  where  men  followed  a 
divinely  prescribed  ritual,  they  were  taught  by  that 
very  ritual  itself,  that  the  outpoured  blood  and  the  par- 
taken flesh  of  the  sacrifices  were,  at  the  best,  but  mere 
shadows  of  good  things  to  come.^  The  whole  crea- 
tion was  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain  together,  until 
the  birth  of  the  world's  promised  redemption.^ 

The  symbolic  covenant  of  blood-friendship  was  be- 
tween God  and  Abraham's  seed  ;  and  in  that  seed  were 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  have  a  blessing.  God 
had  called  on  Abraham  to  surrender  to  him  his  only 
1  Heb.  lo :  1-4.  «  Rom.  8  :  22. 


THE  DIVINE-HUMAN  BLOOD.  273 

son,  in  proof  of  his  unfailing  love  ;  and,  when  Abraham 
had  stood  that  test  of  his  faith,  God  had  spared  to  him 
the  proffered  offering.  It  now  remained  for  God  to 
transcend  Abraham's  proof  of  friendship,  and  to  spare 
not  his  own  and  only  Son,^  but  to  make  him  a  sacri- 
ficial offering,  by  means  of  which  the  covenant  of 
blood-friendship,  between  God  and  the  true  seed  of 
Abraham,  might  become  a  reality  instead  of  a  symbol. 
Abraham  had  given  to  God  of  his  own  blood,  by  the 
rite  of  circumcision,  in  token  of  his  desire  for  inter- 
union  with  God.  God  was  now  to  give  of  his  blood, 
in  the  blood  of  his  Son,  for  the  re-vivifying  of  the  sons 
of  Abraham  in  "  the  blood  of  the  eternal  covenant"^ 
Then,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  there  came  down  into 
this  world  He  who  from  the  beginning  was  one  with 
God,  and  who  now  became  one  with  man.  Becoming 
a  sharer  of  the  nature  of  those  who  were  subject  to 
death,  and  who  longed  for  life,  Jesus  Christ  was  here 
among  men  as  the  fulfillment  of  type  and  prophecy ; 
to  meet  and  to  satisfy  the  holiest  and  the  uttermost 
yearnings  of  the  human  soul  after  eternal  life,  in  com- 
munion and  union  with  God.  "  And  the  Word  became 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  .  .  .  full  of  grace  and 
truth."  "  In  him  was  life  [life  that  death  could  not 
destroy;  life  that  could  destroy  death],  and  the  life 
[which  was  in  him]  was  the  light  [the  guide  and  the 

iRom.  8:  32.  »  Heb.  13:  20. 


274  ^^^  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

hope]  of  men."  "  He  came  unto  his  own,  and  they 
that  were  [called]  his  own  received  him  not.  But  as 
many  as  received  him  [whether,  before,  they  had  been 
called  his  own,  or  not]  to  them  gave  he  the  right  to 
become  children  of  God  [by  becoming  partakers  of  his 
Hfe],  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name :  which 
were  [through  faith]  begotten,  not  of  bloods  [not  by 
ordinary  generation],  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."^  Having  in  his  own 
blood,  the  life  of  God  and  the  life  of  man,  Jesus  Christ 
/  could  make  men  sharers  of  the  divine  nature,  by 
\  making  them  sharers  of  his  own  nature  ;  and  this  was 
i  the  truth  of  truths  which  he  declared  to  those  whom 
he  instructed. 

In  the  primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  men 
drank  of  each  other's  blood,  in  order  that  they  might 
have  a  common  life ;  and  they  ate  together  of  a 
mutually  prepared  feast,  in  order  that  they  might 
evidence  and  nourish  that  common  life.  In  the  out- 
reaching  of  men  Godward,  for  the  privileges  of  a 
divine-human  inter-union,  they  poured  out  the  sub- 
stitute blood  of  a  chosen  victim  in  sacrifice,  and  they 
partook  of  the  flesh  of  that  sacrificial  victim,  in  sym- 
bolism of  sharing  the  life  and  the  nourishment  of 
Deity.  This  symbolism  was  made  a  reality  in  Jesus 
Christ.     He  was  the  Seed  of  Abraham  ;  the  fulfillment 

^Comp.  Johni:  1-14;  Heb.  i:  1-3;  2:  14-16. 


THE  PREPARED  BODY,  275 

of  the  promise,  "  In  Isaac  shall  thy  Seed  be  called."  ^ 
He  was  the  true  Paschal  Lamb ;  the  "  Lamb  without 
blemish  and  without  spot " ;  ^  "  the  Lamb  that  hath 
been  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  ^  The 
blood  which  he  yielded,  was  Life  itself  The  body 
which  he  laid  on  the  altar  was  the  Peace  Offering  of 
Completion.'* 

"  Wherefore,  when  he  cometh  into  the  world,  he  saith : 

Sacrifice  and  offering  thou  wouldest  not, 

But  a  body  didst  thou  prepare  for  me ; 

In  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sin  thou  hadst  no  pleasure : 

Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  am  come 

(In  the  roll  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me) 

To  do  thy  will,  O  God. 

Saying  above,  [He  here  says.]  Sacrifices  and  offerings 
and  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sin  thou 
wouldest  not,  neither  hadst  pleasure  therein  [as  if  in 
themselves  sufficient]  (the  which  are  offered  according 
to  the  Law) ;  then  [also]  hath  he  said,  Lo  I  am  come  to 
do  thy  will.  He  taketh  away  the  first  [the  symbolic], 
that  he  may  establish  the  second  [the  real]."  ^ 

He  was  here,  in  the  body  of  his  blood  and  flesh,  for 
the  yielding  of  his  blood  and  the  sharing  of  his  flesh, 
in  order  to  make  partakers  of  his  nature,  whosoever 
would  seek  a  divine-human  inter-union  and  a  divine- 

*  Gen.  21 :  12;  Heb.  11  :  18.  ^\  Pet.  i :  20. 

*  Rev.  13:8.  *  See  page  250,  supra^  note.        ^  Heb.  10 :  5-9. 


276  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

human  inter-communion,  through  the  sacrifice  made 
by  him,  "  once  for  all." 

"Jesus  therefore  said  unto  them.  Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you.  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not  life  in  your- 
selves. He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood  hath  eternal  life ;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the 
last  day.  For  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed  [is  true  meat], 
and  my  blood  [my  life]  is  drink  indeed  [is  true  drink]. 
He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood 
abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him  [Herein  is  communion 
through  union].  As  the  living  Father  sent  me,  and  I 
live  because  of  the  Father ;  so  he  that  eateth  me,  he 
also  shall  live  because  of  me.  This  is  the  bread 
which  came  down  out  of  heaven :  not  as  the  fathers 
did  eat,  and  died :  he  that  eateth  this  bread  shall  live 
forever."  ^ 

"These  things  said  he  in  the  synagogue,  as  he 
taught  in  Capernaum  " — toward  the  close  of  the  second 
year  of  his  public  ministry.  The  fact  that  he  did 
speak  thus,  so  long  before  he  had  instituted  the 
Memorial  Supper,  has  been  a  puzzle  to  many  com- 
mentators who  were  unfamiliar  with  the  primitive  rite 
of  blood-covenanting,  and  with  the  world-wide  series 
of  substitute  sacrifices  and  substitute  forms  of  com- 
munion, which  had  grown  out  of  the  suggestions,  and 

»John  6:    53-58. 


A  SPIRITUAL   TRUTH,  2JJ 

out  of  the  perversions,  of  the  root  symboHsms  of  that 
rite.  But,  in  the  light  of  all  these  customs,  the  words 
of  Jesus  have  a  clearer  meaning.  It  was  as  though 
he  had  said :  "  Men  everywhere  long  for  life.  They 
seek  a  share  in  the  life  of  God.  They  give  of  their 
own  blood,  or  of  substitute  blood,  and  they  taste  of 
substitute  blood,  or  they  receive  its  touch,  in  evidence 
of  their  desire  for  oneness  of  nature  with  God.  They 
crave  communion  with  God,  and  they  eat  of  the  flesh 
of  their  sacrifices  accordingly.  All  that  they  thus 
reach  out  after,  I  supply.  In  me  is  life.  If  they  will 
become  partakers  of  my  life,  of  my  nature,  they  shall 
be  sharers  of  the  life  of  God."  Then,  he  added,  in 
assurance  of  the  fact,  that  it  was  a  profound  spiritual 
truth  which  he  was  enunciating  :  "  It  is  the  spirit  that 
quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing :  the  words 
that  I  have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are  life."  ^ 
The  divine-human  inter-union  and  the  divine-human  \  { 
inter-communion  are  spiritual,  and  they  are  spiritually  I  ' 
wrought ;  or  they  are  nothing. 

The  words  of  Jesus  on  this  subject,  were  not  under- 
stood by  those  who  heard  him.  "  The  Jews  therefore 
strove  one  with  another,  saying.  How  can  this  man 
give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  ?"  ^  But  this  was  not  because 
the  Jews  had  never  heard  of  eating  the  flesh  of  a  sacrifi- 
cial victim,  and  of  drinking  blood  in  a  sacred  covenant: 

1  John  6:  63.  »  John  6:  60. 

24 


278  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

it  was,  rather,  because  they  did  not  reahze  that  Jesus 
was  to  be  the  crowning  sacrifice  for  the  human  race ; 
nor  did  they  comprehend  his  right  and  power  to  make 
those  who  were  one  with  him  through  faith,  thereby 
one  with  God  in  spiritual  nature.  "  Many,"  even  "  of 
his  disciples,  when  they  heard "  these  words  of  his, 
"  said,  This  is  a  hard  saying ;  who  can  hear  it  ?  "  ^ 
Nor  are  questioners  at  this  point,  lacking  among  his 
disciples  to-day. 

Before  Jesus  Christ  was  formally  made  an  offering 
in  sacrifice,  as  a  means  of  man's  inter-union  and  inter- 
communion with  God,  there  were  two  illustrations  of 
his  mission,  in  the  giving  of  his  blood  for  the  bring- 
ing of  man  into  right  relations  with  God.  These  were, 
his  circumcision,  and  his  agony  in  Gethsemane. 

By  his  circumcision,  Jesus  brought  his  humanity 
into  the  blood-covenant  which  was  between  God  and 
the  seed  of  God's  friend,  Abraham,  of  whose  nature, 
according  to  the  flesh,  Jesus  had  become  a  partaker ;  ^ 
Jesus  thereby  pledged  his  own  blood  in  fidelity  to  that 
covenant ;  so  that  all  who  should  thereafter  become 
his  by  their  faith,  might,  through  him,  be  heirs  of  faith- 
ful Abraham.^  The  sweet  singer  of  the  Christian 
Year,^  seems  to  find  this  thought,  in  this  incident  in 
the  life  of  the  Holy  Child : 

1  John  6  :  60.  *Heb.  l :  14-16. 

»Gal.  3:  6-9,16,29.  *Keble. 


THE  BLOODY  SWEAT,  279 

«*Like  sacrificial  wine 

Poured  on  a  victim's  head, 
Are  those  few  precious  drops  of  thine, 
Now  first  to  offering  led. 
"They  are  the  pledge  and  seal 

Of  Christ's  unswerving  faith, 
Given  to  his  Sire,  our  souls  to  heal. 
Although  it  cost  his  death. 
"They,  to  his  Church  of  old, 
To  each  true  Jewish  heart, 
In  gospel  graces  manifold, 
Communion  blest  impart." 

In  Gethsemane,  the  sins  and  the  needs  of  humanity 
so  pressed  upon  the  burdened  soul  of  Jesus,  that  his 
very  life  was  forced  out,  as  it  were,  from  his  aching, 
breaking  heart,  in  his  boundless  sympathy  with  his 
loved  ones,  and  in  his  infinite  longings  for  their  union 
with  God,  through  their  union  with  himself,  in  the 
covenant  of  blood  he  was  consummating  in  their  be- 
half ^     "And  being  in  an  agony,  he  prayed  more  earn- 

1 "  In  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  Christ  endured  mental  agony  so  in- 
tense that,  had  it  not  been  limited  by  divine  interposition,  it  would 
probably  have  destroyed  his  life  without  the  aid  of  any  other  sufferings ; 
but  having  been  thus  mitigated,  its  effects  were  confined  to  violent  | 
palpitation  of  the  heart  accompanied  with  bloody  sweat.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Millingen's  explanation  of  bloody  sweat  ...  is  judicious.  *  It  is 
probable,'  says  he,  *  that  this  strange  disorder  arises  from  a  violent  com- 
motion of  the  nervous  system,  turning  the  streams  of  blood  out  of  their 
natural  course,  and  forcing  the  red  particles  into  the  cutaneous  excreto- 
ries.'  "    (Stroud's  Physical  Cause  of  the  Death  of  Christy  pp.  74,  380}. 


28o  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

estly :  and  his  sweat  became  as  it  were  great  drops  of 
blood  falling  down  to  the  ground."^ 

Because  of  his  God-ward  purpose  of  bringing  men 
into  a  loving  covenant  with  God,  Jesus  gave  of  his 
blood  in  the  covenant-rite  of  circumcision.  Because 
of  his  man-ward  sympathy  with  the  needs  and  the 
trials  of  those  whom  he  had  come  to  save,  and  because 
of  the  crushing  burden  of  their  death-bringing  sins, 
Jesus  gave  of  his  blood  in  an  agony  of  intercessoiy  suf- 
fering. Therefore  it  is,  that  the  Litany  cry  of  the  ages 
goes  up  to  him  in  fulness  of  meaning :  "  By  the  mys- 
tery of  thy  holy  incarnation ;  by  thy  holy  nativity  and 
circumcision ;  ...  by  thine  agony  and  bloody  sweat, 
.     .     .     Good  Lord,  deliver  us." 

In  process  of  time,  the  hour  drew  nigh  that  the  true 
covenant  of  blood  between  God  and  man  should  be 
consummated  finally,  in  its  perfectness.  The  period 
chosen  was  the  passover-feast — the  feast  observed  by 
the  Jews  in  commemoration  of  that  blood-covenanting 
occasion  in  Egypt,  when  God  evidenced  anew  his 
fidelity  to  his  promises  to  the  seed  of  Abraham,  his 
blood-covenanted  friend.  "  Now  before  the  feast  of 
the  passover,  Jesus  knowing  that  his  hour  was  come 
that  he  should  depart  out  of  this  world  to  the  Father, 
having  loved  his  own  which  were  in  the  world,  he 
loved   them  unto   the  end."^    "And  when  the  hour 

1  Luke  22 :  44.  *  John  13 :  i. 


THE  COMMUNION  FEAST.  28 1 

was  come,  he  sat  down,  and  the  apostles  with  him. 
And  he  said  unto  them.  With  desire  I  have  desired  to 
eat  this  passover  with  you  before  I  suffer."  ^  Whether 
he  actually  partook  of  the  passover  meal  at  that  time, 
or  not  is  a  point  still  in  dispute ;  ^  but  as  to  that  which 
follows,  there  is  no  question. 

"As  they  were  eating,  Jesus  took  bread,  and  blessed, 
and  brake  it ;  and  he  gave  to  the  disciples,  and  said, 
Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body."  ^  "  This  do  in  remem- 
brance of  me.  And  the  cup  in  like  manner  after 
supper ;  "  '^  "  and  when  he  had  given  thanks,  he  gave 
[it]  to  them,"  ^  "  saying,  Drink  ye  all  of  it ;  for  this  is 
my  blood  of  the  covenant,"  ^  or,  as  another  Evangelist 
records,  "  this  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  my  blood,"  ^ 
"which  is  shed  for  many  unto  remission  of  sins"^ 
[unto  the  putting  away  of  sins].  "  This  do,  as  oft  as 
ye  drink  it,  in  remembrance  of  me."®  "And  they  all 
drank  of  it"  ^« 

Here  was  the  covenant  of  blood;  here  was  the 
communion  feast,  in  partaking  of  the  flesh  of  the 
fitting  and  accepted  sacrifice ; — ^toward  which  all  rite 
and    symbol,  and   all  heart   yearning  and  inspired 

iLuke  22:  14,  15. 

*  As  to  the  points  in  this  dispute,  see  Andrews's  Life  of  our  Lord, 

pp.  425-460,  and  Farrar's  Life  of  Christy  Excursus  X.,  Appendix. 

2  Matt.  26 :  26.  *  Luke  22  :  19,  20.  *  Mark  14 :  23. 

•Matt.  26:  27,  28.  'Luke  22:  20.  ^^att.  26:  28. 

» I  Cor.  II :  25.  »o  Mark  14 :  23. 

24* 


282  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

prophecy,  had  pointed,  in  all  the  ages.  Here  was  the 
realization  of  promise  and  hope  and  longing,  in  man's 
possibility  of  inter-union  with  God  through  a  common 
life — which  is  oneness  of  blood ;  and  in  man's  inter- 
communion with  God,  through  participation  in  the 
blessings  of  a  common  table.  He  who  could  speak 
for  God,  here  proffered  of  his  owa  blood,  to  make 
those  whom  he  loved,  of  the  same  nature  with  himself, 
and  so  of  the  same  nature  with  his  God;  to  bring  them 
into  blood-friendship  with  their  God ;  and  he  proffered 
of  his  own  body,  to  supply  them  with  soul  nourish- 
ment, in  that  Bread  which  came  down  from  God, 

Then  it  was,  while  they  were  there  together  in  that 
upper  room,  for  the  consummating  of  that  blood- 
covenant  of  friendship,  that  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples  : 
"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay 
down  his  life  for  his  friends.  Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye 
do  the  things  which  I  command  you.  No  longer  do  I 
call  you  servants ;  for  the  servant  knoweth  not  what 
his  lord  doeth :  but  I  have  called  you  friends  [friends 
in  the  covenant  of  blood-friendship  now] ;  for  all 
things  that  I  heard  from  my  Father,  I  have  made 
known  unto  you."  *  A  common  life,  through  oneness 
of  blood,  secures  an  absolute  unreserve  of  intimacy ; 
so  that  neither  friend  has  aught  to  conceal  from  his 
other  self.  "Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you;  ...  for 
ijohn  15:  13-15. 


THE  PRAYER  OF  FRIENDSHIP,  283 

apart  from  me  ye  can  do  nothing,"  was  the  injunction 
of  Jesus  to  his  blood-covenant  friends,  at  this  hour  of 
his  covenant  pledging.  "  If  ye  abide  in  me,  and  my 
words  abide  in  you,  ask  whatsoever  ye  will,  and  it 
shall  be  done  unto  you."^ 

Then  it  was,  also,  that  the  prayer  of  Jesus  for  his 
new  blood-covenant  friends  went  up :  "  Father,  the 
hour  is  come;  glorify  thy  Son,  that  the  Son  may 
glorify  thee :  even  as  thou  gavest  him  authority  over 
all  flesh,  that  whatsoever  [whomsoever]  thou  hast 
given  him,  to  them  he  should  give  eternal  life  [in  an 
eternal  covenant  of  blood].  And  this  is  life  eternal, 
that  they  should  know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
him  whom  thou  didst  send  [as  the  means  of  life],  even 
Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  thy 
name  which  thou  hast  given  me,  that  they  may  be  one, 
even  as  we  are.  .  .  .  Neither  for  these  [here  pres- 
ent] only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  that  believe  on  me 
through  their  word ;  that  they  may  all  be  one ;  even 
as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they 
also  may  be  in  us :  that  the  world  may  believe  that 
thou  didst  send  me.  And  the  glory  which  thou  hast 
given  me  I  have  given  unto  them ;  that  they  may  be 
one,  even  as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me, 
that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one ;  that  the  world 
may  know  that  thou  didst  send  me,  and  lovedst  them, 
1  John  15  :  4-7- 


284  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

even  as  thou  lovedst  me."^  Here  was  declared  the 
scope  of  this  blood-covenant,  and  here  was  unfolded 
its  doctrine. 

It  was  not  an  utterly  new  symbolism  that  Jesus  was 
introducing  into  the  religious  thought  of  the  world :  it 
was  rather  a  new  meaning  that  he  was  introducing 
into,  or  that  he  was  disclosing  in,  an  already  widely 
recognized  symbolism.  The  world  was  familiar  with 
the  shadow  of  truth;  Jesus  now  made  clear  to  the 
world,  the  truth's  substance.  Man's  longing  to  be  a 
partaker  of  the  divine  nature,  had  manifested  itself, 
through  all  the  ages  and  everywhere.  Jesus  now 
showed  how  that  longing  of  death-smitten  man  could 
be  realized.  "The  appearing  of  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ  .  .  .  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light  through  the  gospel "  ^  of  his  blood- 
covenant. 

But  a  covenant  of  blood,  a  covenant  to  give  one's 
blood,  one's  life,  for  the  saving  of  another,  cannot  be 
consummated  without  the  death  of  the  covenanter. 
"  For  where  [such]  a  covenant  is,  there  must  of  neces- 
sity be  [be  brought]  the  death  of  him  that  made  it. 
For  [such]  a  covenant  is  of  force  [becomes  a  reality] 
where  there  hath  been  death  [or,  over  the  dead]  :  for 
doth  it  [such  a  covenant]  ever  avail  [can  it  be  effi- 
cient] while  he  that  made  it  liveth?"^    Jesus  had  said, 

ijohn  17:  1-24.  2  2  Tim.  i  :  10.  *Heb.  9:  16,  if. 


THE  BREAKING  HEART.  285 

"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay- 
down  his  lite  for  his  friends."  ^  Of  his  readiness  to 
show  this  measure  of  love  for  those  who  were  as  the 
sheep  of  his  fold,  he  had  declared :  "  I  came  that  they 
may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly.  .  .  . 
I  lay  down  my  life  for  the  sheep.  .  .  .  Therefore 
doth  my  Father  love  me,  because  I  lay  down  my  life, 
that  I  may  take  it  again.  No  one  taketh  it  away  from 
me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself."^  And  again:  "I 
am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  out  of  heaven : 
if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  for  ever : 
yea,  and  the  bread  which  Iwill  give  is  my  flesh,  for 
the  life  of  the  world."  ^  "  For  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed, 
and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed."  ^  Such  a  covenant  as 
this,  could  be  of  force  only  through  the  death  of  him 
who  pledges  it. 

The  promise  of  the  covenanting-cup,  at  the  cove- 
nanting-feast,  was  made  good  on  Calvary.^  The  pierced 
hands  and  feet  of  the  Divine  Friend  yielded  their  life- 
giving  streams.  Then,  with  the  final  cry, "  It  is  finished," 
the  very  heart  of  the  self-surrendered  sacrificial  victim 
was  broken,^  and  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God  and  of  the 

'  John  15  :  13.     2  John  10  :  10,  18.      'John  6:  51.      *  John  6:  55. 

^See  Matt.  27:  33-54;  Mark  15:  22-39;  Luke  23:  33-47;  John 
19:  17-37. 

*  "  He  was  ultimately  •  slain,'  not  by  the  effects  of  the  anguish  of  his 
corporeal  frame,  but  by  the  effects  of  the  mightier  anguish  of  his  mind ; 


286  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

Seedof  Abraham,  was  poured  out  unto  death/  in  order 
that  all  who  would,  might  become  sharers  in  its  re-vivi- 
fying and  saving  power.  He  who  was  without  sin,  had 
received  the  wages  of  sin ;  because,  that,  only  through 
dying  was  it  possible  for  him  to  supply  that  life  which 
would  redeem  from  the  penalty  of  sin  those  who  had 
earned  death,  as  sin's  wages.^  He  who,  in  himself,  had 
life,  had  laid  down  his  life,  so  that  those  who  were  with- 
out life  might  become  its  partakers,  through  faith,  in  the 
bonds  and  blessings  of  an  everlasting  covenant.  So, 
the  long  symbolized  covenant  of  blood  was  made  a 
reality.  "And  the  witness  is  this,  that  God  gave  unto 
us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son.  He  that  hath 
the  Son  hath  the  life ;  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God 
hath  not  the  life."  * 

lO.   THE   BLOOD   COVENANT   APPLIED. 

Under  the  symbolic  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Covenant, 
it  was  the  blood  which  made  atonement  for  the  soul. 
It  was  not  the  death  of  the  victim,  nor  yet  its  broken 
body,  but  it  was  the  blood,  the  life,  the  soul,  that  was 

the  fleshy  walls  of  his  heart — ^like  the  veil,  as  it  were,  in  the  temple  of 
his  human  body — ^becoming  rent  and  riven,  as,  for  us,  *  he  poured  out 
his  soul  unto  death.'  "  (Sir  James  Y.  Simpson,  cited  in  Appendix  to 
Stroud's  Physical  Cause  of  Death  of  Christ.) 

iJsa.  53:  12.     2Comp.  Rom.6:  23;  i  Pet.  3  :  18;  Isa.  53  :  4-6. 
'l  John  5  :  II,  12. 


OLD  LIFE  PURGED  OUT  BY  NEW.  287 

made  the  means  of  a  soul's  ransom,  of  its  rescue,  of  its 
redemption.  "  The  Hfe  [the  soul]  of  the  flesh  is  in  the 
blood,"  said  the  Lord :  "  and  I  have  given  it  to  you 
upon  the  altar  to  make  atonement  [to  be  a  cover,  to 
be  a  propitiation]  for  your  souls  [for  your  lives] :  for  it 
is  the  blood  that  maketh  atonement  by  reason  [of  its 
being]  the  life  [the  soul]."  ^  "  For  as  to  the  life  [the 
soul]  of  all  flesh,  the  blood  thereof  is  all  one  with  the 
life  [the  soul]  thereof."^  And  so,  all  through  the 
record  of  the  Old  Covenant. 

It  is  the  same  in  the  New  Covenant,  as  it  was  in  the 
Old.  Atonement,  salvation,  rescue,  redemption,  is  by  M 
the  blood,  the  life,  of  Christ;  not  by  his  death  as  such; 
not  by  his  broken  body  in  itself;  but  by  that  blood 
which  was  given  at  the  inevitable  cost  of  his  broken 
body  and  of  his  death.  The  figure  of  leprosy  and  its 
attempted  cure  by  blood,  may  tend  to  make  this  truth 
the  clearer.  In  the  leper,  the  very  blood  itself— the 
life — was  death  smitten.  The  only  hope  of  a  cure  was 
by  purging  out  the  old  blood,  by  means  of  an  inflow- 
ing current  of  new  blood,  which  was  new  life.  ^  To 
give  this  blood,  the  giver  himself  must  die ;  but  it  was 
his  blood,  his  life,  not  his  death,  which  was  to  be  the 
means  of  cure.  So,  also,  with  the  sin-leprous  nature. 
His  old  life  must  be  purged  out,  by  the  incoming  of  a 
new  life ;  of  such  a  life  as  only  the  Son  of  God  can  supply, 

^Lev.i7:ii.  *Lev.  17:14.  'See  pages  11 6-1 25. 


288  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

In  order  to  supply  that  blood,  its  Giver  must  himself 
die,  and  so  be  a  sharer  of  the  punishment  of  sin,  al- 
though he  was  himself  without  sin.  Thus  was  the  new 
life  made  a  possibility  to  all,  by  faith. 

So  it  is,  that  "  we  have  redemption  [rescue  from 
death]  through  [by  means  of]  his  blood"  ;^  and  that 
"  the  blood  of  Jesus  .  .  .  cleanseth  us  [by  its  purg- 
ing inflow]  from  all  sin."  ^  So  it  is,  that  he  "  loosed  us 
[freed  us]  from  our  sins  by  his  [cleansing,  his  re-vivi- 
fying] blood."  ^  So  it  is,  that  "  if  any  man  is  in  Christ 
[is  one  in  nature  with  Christ,  through  sharing,  by  faith, 
the  blood  of  Christ],  he  is  a  new  creature  [Of  course 
he  is] :  the  old  things  are  passed  away ;  behold  they 
are  become  new."  ^  So  it  is,  also,  that  it  can  be  said 
of  those  whose  old  lives  were  purged  away  by  the  in- 
flowing redeeming  life  of  Christ :  "  Ye  died,  and  your 
life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God."^  And  "this  is  the  true 
God  and  eternal  life."  ^ 

"  These  things  have  I  written  unto  you,"  says  the 
best  loved  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  "that  ye  may  know 
that  ye  have  eternal  life ;  even  unto  you  that  believe  on 
the  name  of  the  Son  of  God";^  "that  ye  may  beHeve 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  and  that,  be- 
lieving, ye  may  have  life  in  his  name."®  For  "God 
commendeth  his  own  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we 

lEph.  1:7.         2i  John  I:  7.  ^Rev.  1:5.         ^2  Cor.  5:17. 

^  Col.  2^'-  Z'       * '  Jo^"  5  :  20.       ^  I  John  5:  13.      ^  John  20  :  31. 


ONENESS  WITH  CHRIST.  289 

were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us  [while  we  were 
separated  from  God  by  sin,  God  yielded  his  only  Son, 
to  give  his  blood,  at  the  cost  of  his  death,  as  a  means 
of  our  inter-union  with  God].  Much  more  then,  being 
now  justified  by  [or,  in]  his  blood  [being  brought  into 
inter-union  with  God  by  that  blood],  shall  we  be  saved 
from  the  wrath  of  God  [against  sin]  through  him  [in 
whom  we  have  life].  For  if,  while  we  were  enemies, 
we  were  reconciled  to  God  [restored  to  union  with 
God]  through  the  [blood-giving]  death  of  his  Son, 
much  more,  being  [thus]  reconciled,  shall  we  be  saved 
by  [or,  in]  his  life."^ 

All  who  will,  may,  now,  "  be  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature,"^  through  becoming  one  with  Christ,  by  sharing 
his  blood,  and  by  being  nourished  with  his  body. 
Entering  into  the  divine-human  covenant  of  blood- 
friendship,  which  Christ's  death  has  made  possible, 
the  believer  can  be  so  incorporated  with  Christ,  by 
faith,  as  to  identify  himself  with  the  experience  and 
the  hopes  of  the  world's  Redeemer ;  and  even  to  say, 
in  all  confidence  :  ''  I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ ; 
yet  I  live ;  and  yet  no  longer  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me ;  and  that  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live 
in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  [which  centres  in]  the  Son 
of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  up  for  me."  "* 
"  For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  himself,  even  so  gave 

1  Rom.  S  :  8-12.  2  2  Pet.  1:4.  a  Gal.  2  :  20. 

25 


290  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT. 

he  to  the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  himself."  ^  And  "  it 
was  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father  that  in  him  [the 
Son]  should  all  the  fulness  dwell ;  and  through  him 
to  reconcile  all  things  unto  himself,  having  made 
peace  [having  completed  union]  through  the  blood  of 
his  cross  "  ^ — in  the  bonds  of  an  everlasting  covenant 
— ^between  those  who  before  were  separated  by  sin. 

"  Remember,  that  aforetime  ye,  the  Gentiles  in  the 
flesh,  who  are  called  Uncircumcision  by  that  [people] 
which  is  called  Circumcision,  in  the  flesh,  made  by 
hands, — that  ye  were  at  that  time  separate  from  Christ, 
alienated  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and 
strangers  from  the  covenants  of  the  promise,  having 
no  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world.  But  now  in 
Christ  Jesus  ye  that  once  were  far  off  are  made  nigh 
in  the  blood  of  Christ.  For  he  is  our  peace,  who 
made  both  [Jew  and  Gentile]  one,  and  broke  down  the 
middle  wall  of  partition,  having  abolished  in  his  flesh 
the  enmity,  even  the  law  of  commandments  contained 
in  ordinances ;  that  he  might  create  in  himself  of  the 
twain  one  new  man,  so  making  peace ;  and  might 
reconcile  them  both  in  one  body  unto  God  through 
the  cross,  having  slain  the  enmity  thereby :  and  he 
came  and  preached  peace  to  you  that  were  far  off,  and 
peace  to  them  that  were  nigh  :  for  through  them  we 
both  have  our  access  in  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father  "  ^ 

ijohn  5:  26.  2  Col.  I  :  19,  20.  ^Eph.  2:  ii-i6. 


THE   VEIL  REMOVED.  29 1 

"  For  in  him  [Christ]  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily,  and  in  him  ye  are  made  full,  who  is 
the  head  of  all  principality  and  power :  in  whom  ye 
were  also  circumcised  with  a  circumcision  not  made 
with  hands,  in  the  putting  off  of  the  body  of  the  flesh, 
in  the  circumcision  of  Christ."  ^  "  For  ye  all  are  one 
man  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  if  ye  are  Christ's,  then  are 
ye  Abraham's  seed,  heirs  according  to  promise"^ — 
inheritors  of  the  blood-covenant  promises  of  God  to 
Abraham  his  friend. 

No  longer  is  there  a  barrier  between  the  yearning, 
loving,  trusting  heart,  and  the  mercy-seat  of  reconcilia- 
tion in  the  very  presence  of  God.  We  who  share  the 
body  and  the  blood  of  Christ,  by  faith,  are  one  with 
him  in  all  the  privileges  of  his  Sonship.  "For  by  one 
offering  he  hath  perfected  [hath  completed  in  their 
right  to  be  sharers  with  him]  for  ever,  them  that  are 
sanctified  [that  are  devoted,  that  are  consecrated,  to 
him].  And  the  Holy  Ghost  also  beareth  witness  to 
us :  for  after  he  hath  said, 

This  is  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  them 

After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord  ; 

I  will  put  my  laws  on  their  heart, 

And  upon  their  mind  also  will  I  write  them  ; 

then  saith  he. 

And  their  sins  and  their  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more. 
^Col.  2  :  9-1 1.  *Gal.  3:  28,  29. 


292  THE  BLOOD   COVENANT, 

Now  where  remission  of  these  [of  sins  and  iniquities] 
is,  there  is  no  more  offering  [no  more  need  of  offering] 
for  sin.  Having,  therefore,  brethren,  boldness  [the 
right  of  boldness]  to  enter  into  the  Holy  Place  [the 
Holy  of  Holies]  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  the  way 
which  he  dedicated  for  us,  a  new  and  living  way, 
through  the  veil,  that  is  to  say  his  flesh  ;  and  having 
a  Great  Priest  over  the  house  of  God ;  let  us  draw  near 
with  a  true  heart  in  fulness  of  faith,  having  our  hearts 
sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  body 
washed,  with  pure  water  [there  being  no  longer  need 
of  blood-sprinkling  or  blood-laving,  to  those  who  are 
sharers  of  the  divine  nature — the  divine  blood]."  ^ 
^  No  more  an  altar  of  sacrifice,  but  a  table  of  commu- 
nion,^ is  where  we  share  the  presence  of  Him  in  whom 
we  have  life,  by  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant. 
To  question  the  sufficiency  of  the  "  one  sacrifice " 
which  Christ  made,  "  once  for  all,"  ^  of  his  body  and 
his  blood,  as  a  means  of  the  believer's  inter-union  with 
God,  is  to  count  the  blood  of  the  covenant  an  unholy, 
or  a  common,  thing,  and  is  to  do  despite  unto  the  Spirit 
of  grace.'*  "Wherefore,  my  beloved,  flee  from  idola- 
try. I  speak  as  to  wise  men;  judge  ye  what  I  say. 
The  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  a  commu- 
nion of  the  blood  of  Christ?     The  bread  which  we 

*  Heb.  10 :    14-22.  2  See  page  167  fF.,  supra. 

*  Comp.  Heb.  9  :  24-28 ;  10 :  10.  *  Heb.  10 :  28,  29. 


THE  ETERNAL   COVENANT.  293 

break,  is  it  not  a  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ?^ 
Seeing  that  we  [beHevers  together  in  Christ],  who  are 
many,  are  one  bread,  one  body :  for  we  all  partake  of 
the  one  bread."  ^ 

"  Now  the  God  of  peace,  who  brought  again  from 
the  dead  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep  with  [or,  by ; 
or,  by  means  of]  the  blood  of  the  eternal  covenant, 
even  our  Lord  Jesus,  make  you  perfect  [complete]  to 
do  his  will,  working  in  us  that  which  is  well  pleasing 
in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ ;  to  whom  be  the 
glory  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen."  ^ 

1  The  Covenant  of  Bread  and  the  Covenant  of  Blood  are  two  disthict 
covenants,  in  Oriental  practice  as  well  as  in  biblical  teaching ;  although 
this  difference  has  been  strangely  overlooked  by  biblical  students  in  the 
realm  of  Orientalisms.  The  Covenant  of  Bread  is  temporary;  the 
Covenant  of  Blood  is  permanent.  The  one  secures  a  tinice ;  the  other 
secures  a  vital  union.  Symbolically,  the  one  gives  nourishment ;  the 
other  gives  life.  The  Covenant  of  Bread  is  an  exhibit  and  a  pledge  of 
hospitality,  and  it  brings  one  into  family  or  tribal  relations  with  those 
proffering  it.  The  Covenant  of  Blood  is  immediately  personal  and 
individual.  There  seems  to  be  an  unconscious  trace  of  this  distinction 
in  the  refusal  of  the  Romish  Church  to  include  the  laity  in  the  symboliz- 
ing of  the  Covenant  of  Blood,  at  the  Lord's  table. 

2  I  Cor.  10:  14-17.  'Heb.  13:  20,  21. 


25* 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THIS   RITE  STRANGELY   UNDERVALUED. 

It  seems  strange  that  a  primitive  rite  like  the  blood-covenant,  with  its 
worid-wide  sweep,  and  its  manifold  applications  to  the  history  of  sacrifice, 
should  have  received  so  little  attention  from  students  of  the  latter  theme. 
Nor  has  it  been  entirely  ignored  by  them ;  although  its  illustrations  have, 
in  this  connection,  been  drawn  almost  entirely  from  the  field  of  the 
classic  writers,  where  its  religious  aspects  have  a  minor  prominence ; 
and,  as  a  result,  the  suggestion  of  any  real  importance  in  the  religious 
symbolism  of  this  rite  has  been,  generally,  brushed  aside  without  its 
receiving  due  consideration. 

Thus,  in  The  Speaker's  Commentary, — which  is  one  of  the  more 
recent,  and  more  valuable,  scholarly  and  sensible  conipends  of  sound 
and  thorough  biblical  criticism, — there  are  references  to  the  rite  of 
human  blood-covenanting  in  its  possible  bearing  on  the  blood-cove- 
nanting of  God  with  Israel  before  Mount  Sinai,i  ^fter  this  sort :  "  The 
instances  from  classical  antiquity,  adduced,  as  parallels  to  this  sacrifice 
of  Moses,  by  Bahr,  Knobel,  and  Kalisch,  in  which  animals  were 
slaughtered  on  the  making  of  covenants,  are  either,  those  in  which  the 
animal  was  slain  to  signify  the  punishment  due  to  the  paity  that  might 
break  the  covenant  (Hom.  //.,  III.,  298;  XIX.,  252;  Uv.Hist.,!., 
24;  XXI.,  45);  those  in  which  confederates  dipped  their  hands,  or 
their  weapons,  in  the  same  blood  (.^ch.  Sept.  c.  Theb.,  43 ;  Xenoph. 
Anab.y  II.,  2,  §  9) ;  or  those  in  which  the  contracting  parties  tasted 

1  See  pages  238-240,  su^ra. 

297 


298  APPENDIX. 

each  other's  blood  (Herodot.  \^Hist.'\  I.,  74;  IV,,  74;  Tac.  Annal, 
XII.,  47).  All  these  usages  are  based  upon  ideas  which  are  but  veiy 
superficially  related  to  the  subject;  they  have  indeed  no  true  connection 
whatever  with  the  idea  of  sacrifice  as  the  seal  of  a  covenant  between 
God  and  man."  ^ 

When  the  entire  history  of  man's  outreaching  after  an  inter-union  of 
natures  with  his  fellow-man  and  with  his  God,  is  fairly  studied,  in  the 
light  thrown  on  it  by  the  teachings  of  the  divine-human  Being,  who  gave 
of  his  own  blood  for  the  consummation  of  the  longed-for  divine-human 
inter-union,  it  will  be  more  clearly  seen,  whether  it  were  the  relation  of 
the  primitive  rite  itself  to  the  idea  of  sacrifice,  or  the  study  of  that  relation, 
which  was  "  very  superficial,"  as  a  cause  of  its  popular  overlooking. 

The  closest  and  most  sacred  form  of  covenant  ever  known  in  the 
primitive  world,  was  that  whereby  two  persons  covenanted  to  become 
one,  through  being  partakers  of  the  same  blood.  At  Sinai,  when  Je- 
hovah would  covenant  with  Israel,  a  common  supply  of  substitute  blood 
— proffered  by  Israel  and  accepted  by  Jehovah— was  taken;  and  one- 
half  of  it  was  cast  upon  the  altar,  Godward,  while  the  other  half  of  it 
was  cast  Israelward,  upon  the  people.^  The  declaration  of  Moses  to 
Israel,  then,  was :  "  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  which  the  Lord 
hath  made  with  you ;  "  or,  as  that  declaration  is  repeated,  in  Hebrews  : 
"  This  is  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which  God  covenanted  to  you- 
ward."  3  And  from  that  time  forward,  the  most  sacred  possession  of 
Israel, — above  which  hovered  the  visible  sign  of  the  presence  of  Je- 
hovah,— was  the  casket  which  contained  the  record  of  that  blood-made 
covenant ;  and  it  was  toward  the  mercy-seat  cover  of  that  Covenant 
Casket,  that  House  of  the  Covenant,  that  the  symbolic  blood  of  atone- 
ment through  new  life  was  sprinkled,  in  the  supreme  renewals  of  that 
covenant  by  Israel's  representative  year  by  year. 

Even  the  Speaker's  Commentaiy  says,  of  this  mutual  blood-sharing 
by  Israel  and  Jehovah  at  Sinai :  "  The  blood  thus  divided  between  the 
"^Speaker's  Comm.,  at  Exod.  24:  8.  2Exod.  24:  3-8.  3Heb.  9:  20, 


APPENDIX.  299 

two  parties  to  the  covenant  signified  the  sacramental  union  between  the 
Lord  and  his  people."  ^  Of  the  blood  which  was  to  be  poured  out  on 
Calvary,  Jesus  said  :  "  This  is  my  blood  of  the  [new]  covenant,  which 
is  shed  for  many."  ^  And  of  the  sacramental  union  which  could  be 
secured,  between  his  trustful  disciples  and  himself,  by  tasting  his  blood, 
and  by  being  nourished  on  his  flesh,  he  said :  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh 
of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves. 
He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  hath  eternal  life."  '  It 
really  looks  as  if  there  were  more  than  a  superficial  relation  between 
the  fact  of  an  absolute  inter-union  of  two  natures  through  an  inter-flow 
of  a  common  life,  in  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  and  the  sacramental 
union  between  the  Lord  and  his  people,  which  was  typified  in  the 
blood-covenant  at  Sinai,  and  which  was  consummated  in  the  blood- 
covenant  at  Calvary. 

Herbert  Spencer,  indeed,  seems  to  have  a  clearer  conception  than  the 
Speaker's  Commentary,  of  the  relation  of  human  blood-covenanting,  to 
the  inter-union  of  those  in  the  flesh,  with  spiritual  beings.  He  perceives 
that  the  primitive  ofierings  of  blood  over  the  dead,  from  the  living  person, 
are,  in  some  cases,  "  explicable  as  arising  from  the  practice  of  establishing 
a  sacred  bond  between  living  persons  by  partaking  of  each  other's  blood : 
the  derived  conception  being,  that  those  who  give  some  of  their  blood  to 
the  ghost  of  a  man  just  dead  and  lingering  near  [and  of  course,  the  princi- 
ple is  the  same  when  the  offering  of  blood  is  to  the  gods,  thereby]  effect 
with  it  a  union,  which  on  the  one  side  implies  submission,  and  on  the 
other  side  friendliness."  *  This  admission  by  Mr.  Spencer  covers  the 
essential  point  in  the  argument  of  this  entire  volume. 

LIFE  IN  THE  BLOOD,    IN  THE  HEART,   IN  THE   LIVER. 

Among  all  primitive  peoples,  the  blood  has  been  deemed  the  repre- 
sentative of  life.     The  giving  of  blood  has  been  counted  the  giving  of 

^Speaker's  Com.,  at  Exod.  24;  8,  SMark  14  :  24. 

•  John  6 ;  53,  54.  ^ Principles  0/  Sociology ,  II.,  §  364. 


300  APPENDIX. 

life.  The  receiving  of  blood  has  been  counted  the  receiving  of  life. 
The  sharing  of  blood  has  been  counted  the  sharing  of  life.  Hence,  the 
blood  has  always  been  counted  the  chief  thing  in  any  sacrificial  victim 
proffered  to  the  gods ;  and  whatever  was  sought  through  sacrifice,  was 
to  be  obtained  by  means  of  the  blood  of  the  offering.  Even  though  no 
specific  reference  to  the  blood  be  found  in  the  preserved  descriptions  of 
one  of  the  earlier  sacrifices, — as,  for  example,  the  Akkadian  sacrifice  of  the 
first-born  (page  i66,  supra),  the  very  fact  that  the  offering  made  was  of  a 
life,  and  that  blood  was  recognized  as  life,  is  in  itself  the  proof  that  it  was 
the  blood  which  gave  the  offering  its  value. 

Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson,  who  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  both 
Egyptian  and  biblical  antiquities,  was  impressed  by  the  "striking  re- 
semblance "  of  many  of  the  religious  rites  of  the  Jews  to  those  of  Egypt, 
" particularly  the  manner  in  which  the  sacrifices  were  performed;"* 
and  he  points  out  the  Egyptian  method  of  so  slaying  the  sacrificial  ox, 
that  its  blood  should  be  fully  discharged  from  the  body ;  a  point  which 
was  deemed  of  such  importance  in  the  Jewish  ritual.^  Of  the  illus- 
tration of  this  ceremony  given  by  Wilkinson  from  an  ancient  Egyptian 
painting,^  the  Speaker's  Commentary  says :  "  There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  this  picture  accurately  represents  the  mode  pursued  in  the 
court  of  the  [Jewish]  Tabernacle."  * 

Almost  as  universal  as  the  recognition  of  the  life  in  the  blood,  has 
been  the  identification  of  the  heart  as  the  blood-centre  and  the  blood- 
fountain,  and  so  as  the  epitome  of  the  life  itself.  Says  Pierret,"  the 
French  Egyptologist,  concerning  the  preeminence  given  to  the  heart, 
by  the  ancient  Egyptians  :  "  The  heart  was  embalmed  separately  in  a 
vase  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  genius  Duaoumautew 
[rather,  Tuau-mut-ef,  or,  Reverencer  of  his  Mother.  *  My  heart  was 
my  mother.'     See  page  99,  supra^  without  doubt  because  this  organ, 

"^Anc.  Egypt.,  III.,  411.  "See  pages  245  f.,  supra. 

^Anc.  Egypt.,  II.,  32.  4  Note  on  Lev.  chap.  17. 

^ Diciionnaire  d' Archiologie  Mgyptienne ,  s.  v.  "  Coeur." 


APPENDIX.  301 

indispensable  to  the  resurrection,  could  not  be  replaced  in  the  body  of  a 
man,  until  it  had  been  weighed  in  the  scale  of  the  balance  of  the 
Osirian  judgment  ( Todtenbuch  cxxv.) ;  where  representing  the  acts  of 
the  dead,  it  ought  to  make  equilibrium  with  the  statue  of  the  goddess 
Truth  [Maat].  (See  the  framed  papyri  in  the  funereal  hall  of  the 
Museum  of  the  Louvre.)  Indeed  the  favorable  sentence  is  thus  formu- 
lated :  *  It  is  permitted  that  his  heart  be  in  its  place.'  It  is  said  to 
Setee  I.,  in  the  temple  of  Abydos  :  '  I  bring  thee  thy  heart  to  thy 
breast;  I  put  it  in  its  place.'  The  heart,  principle  of  existence  and  of 
regeneration,  was  symbolized  by  the  scarabaeus :  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
the  texts  relative  to  the  heart  were  inscribed  upon  the  funereal  scara- 
basuses,  which  at  a  certain  epoch  were  introduced  into  the  body  of  the 
mummy  itself,  to  replace  the  absent  organ." 

The  idea  that  the  heart  is  in  itself  life,  and  that  it  can  even  live 
apart  from  the  body,  is  found  all  the  world  over.  References  to  it  in 
ancient  Egypt,  in  India,  and  in  primitive  America,  have  already  been 
pointed  out  (pages  \oo-\io,  supra).  It  shows  itself,  likewise,  in  the 
folk-lore  of  the  Arctic  regions,  and  of  South  Africa,  as  well  as  of  the 
Norseland.  In  a  Samoyed  tale,  "  seven  brothers  are  in  the  habit  of 
taking  out  their  hearts  and  sleeping  without  them.  A  captive  damsel, 
whose  mother  they  have  killed,  receives  the  extracted  hearts,  and  hangs 
them  on  the  tent-pole,  where  they  remain  till  the  following  morning. 
One  night  her  brother  contrives  to  get  the  hearts  into  his  possession. 
Next  morning,  he  takes  them  into  the  tent,  where  he  finds  the  brothers 
at  the  point  of  death.  In  vain  do  they  beg  for  their  hearts,  which  he 
flings  on  the  floor.  *  And  as  he  flings  down  the  hearts,  the  brothers 
die.'  "  ^  According  to  a  Hottentot  story,  "  the  heart  of  a  girl,  whom  a 
lion  has  killed  and  eaten,  is  extracted  from  the  lion,  and  placed  in  a 
calabash  filled  with  milk  [the  *  heart '  and  *  milk ' ;  or  blood  and  bread, 
life  and  its  nourishment  (See  pages  10-12,  261  f.,  supra)\     'The  cala- 

1  In  substance  from  Castren's  Ethnologische  Vorlesungen  iiber  die  Altaischen 
Volker,  p.  174,  as  cited  in  Ralston's  Russian  Folk  Tales,  p.  122. 

26 


302  APPENDIX. 

bash  increased  in  size ;  and,  in  proportion  to  this,  the  girl  grew  again 
inside  [of]  it.'  "  ^  "In  a  Norse  story,  a  giant's  heart  lies  in  an  egg, 
inside  a  duck,  which  swims  in  a  well,  in  a  church,  on  an  island ;  "  ^  and 
this  story  is  found  in  variations  in  other  lands.^  So,  again,  in  a  "  Rus- 
sian story,  a  prince  is  grievously  tormented  by  a  witch  who  has  got 
hold  of  his  heart,  and  keeps  it  pei^petually  seething  in  a  magic  cauld- 
ron." * 

This  same  idea  is  found  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  Bible,  and  in  the 
every  day  speech  of  the  civilized  world  of  the  present  age.  In  more 
than  nine  hundred  instances,  in  our  common  English  Bible,  the  Hebrew 
or  the  Greek  word  for  "heart,"  as  a  physical  organ,  is  applied  to  man's 
personality ;  as  if  it  were,  m  a  sense,  synonymous  with  his  life,  his  self, 
his  soul,  his  nature.  In  every  phase  of  man's  character,  of  man's 
needs,  or  of  man's  experiences,  "  heart "  is  employed  by  us  as  signifi- 
cant of  his  innermost  and  realest  self.  He  is  "  hard-hearted,"  "  tender- 
hearted," "warm-hearted,"  "cold-hearted,"  "hearty,"  or  "heartless." 
His  words  and  his  conduct  are  "heart-touching,"  "heart-cheering," 
"heart-searching,"  "heart-piercing,"  "heart-thrilling,"  "  heart -sooth- 
ing," or  "heart-rending;"  and  they  are  a  cause,  in  others,  of  "  heart- 
burning," "heart-aching,"  "heart-easing,"  or  "heart-expanding."  At 
times,  his  "heart  is  set  upon"  an  object  of  longing,  or  again  "his 
heart  is  in  his  mouth  "  because  of  his  excited  anxiety.  It  may  be,  that 
he  shows  that  "  his  heart  is  in  the  right  place,"  or  that  "  his  heart  is  at 
rest  "  at  all  times.  The  truest  union  of  two  young  lives,  is  where  "  the 
heart  goes  with  the  hand  "  in  the  marriage  covenant. 

And  so,  all  the  world  over,  from  the  beginning,  primitive  man,  in  the 
lowest  state  of  savagery  and  in  the  highest  stage  of  civilization,  has 

1  From  Bleek's  Reynard  the  Fox  in  South  Africa,  p.  55  ;  as  cited  Ibid.,  p.  123, 
note. 

2  From  Asbj'ornsen  and  Moe,  No.  36,  Dasent,  No.  9,  p.  71,  as  cited  Ibid.,  p.  120. 
8  See  references  to  Kohler's  Orient  und  Occident,  II.,  99-103,  Ibid.,  p.  123,  note. 

*  From  Khudyakof,  No.  no,  as  cited  Ibid.,  p.  124. 


APPENDIX.  303 

been  accustomed  to  recognize  the  truth,  and  to  employ  the  symbolisms 
of  speech,  which  are  in  accordance  with  the  latest  advances  of  physio- 
logical and  psychological  science,  and  with  the  highest  spiritual  con- 
ceptions of  biblical  truth,  in  our  nineteenth  Christian  century,  concern- 
ing the  mental,  the  moral,  and  the  religious  needs  and  possibilities  of 
the  human  race.  Man  as  he  is  needs  a  "  new  heart,"  a  new  nature,  a 
new  life ;  and  that  need  can  be  supplied  by  the  Author  of  life,  through 
that  regeneration  which  is  indicated,  and  which,  in  a  sense,  is  realized 
in  new  blood  which  is  pure  at  the  start,  and  which  purifies  by  its  purg- 
ing inflow.  The  recognition  of  this  truth,  and  the  outreaching  of  man 
in  its  direction,  are  at  the  basis  of  all  forms  of  sacrifice  in  all  the  ages. 
And  this  wonderful  attainment  of  primitive  man  everywhere,  we  are 
asked  to  accept  as  man's  mere  natural  inheritance  from  the  sensory 
quiverings  of  his  ancestral  tadpole ! 

"  The  knowledge  of  the  ancients  on  the  subject  [of  blood  as  the 
synonym  of  life]  may,  indeed,  have  been  based  on  the  mere  observation 
that  an  animal  loses  its  life  when  it  loses  its  blood,"  says  the  Speaker's 
Commentary.  But  it  does  seem  a  little  strange,  that  none  of  the 
ancients  ever  observed  that  man  is  very  liable  to  lose  his  life  when  he 
loses  his  brains,  and  that  few  animals  are  actively  efficient  for  practi- 
cal service  without  a  head ;  whereas  both  men  and  the  lower  animals 
do  lose  blood  freely  without  death  resulting. 

It  is  true  that  in  many  paits  of  the  world  the  liver  was  made  promi- 
nent as  seemingly  a  synonym  of  life ;  but  this  was  obviously  because 
of  the  popular  belief  that  the  liver  was  itself  a  mass  of  coagulated 
blood.  The  idea  seems  to  have  been  that  as  the  heart  was  the  blood- 
fountain,  the  liver  was  the  blood-cistern ;  and  that,  as  the  source  of  life 
(or  of  blood,  which  life  is,)  was  at  the  heart ;  so,  the  great  receptacle  of 
life,  or  of  blood,  was  the  liver.  Thus,  in  the  classic  myth  of  Pro- 
metheus, the  avenging  eagle  of  Jupiter  is  not  permitted  to  gnaw  upon 
the  life-giving  heart  itself  of  the  tortured  victim,  but  upon  the  com- 
pacted body  of  life  in  the  captive's  liver;  the  fountain  of  life  is  not  to 


304  APPENDIX. 

be  destroyed,  but  the  cistern  of  life  is  to  be  emptied  daily  of  all  that  it 
had  received  from  the  out-flowing  heart  during  the  preceding  night. 
And  in  the  symbolism  of  these  two  organs,  the  ancients  seem  to  have 
been  agreed,  that "  The  heai't  is  the  seat  of  the  soul  [thumos  (dv^oq) 
the  nobler  passions]  ;  the  liver  [is  the  seat]  of  desire ;  "  ^  or,  as  again  it 
is  phrased,  "  The  seat  of  the  soul  is  unquestionably  the  heart,  even  as  the 
liver  is  the  seat  of  emotion."  2 

Burton  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  among  the  Arabs,  "  the 
liver  and  the  spleen  are  both  supposed  to  be  '  congealed  blood,'  "  and 
that  the  Bed^ween  of  the  Hejaz  justify  their  eating  of  locusts,  which 
belong  to  an  "  unclean  "  class  of  animals,  and  of  liver  which  represents 
forbidden  blood,  by  this  couplet : 

"  We  are  allowed  two  carrions,  and  two  bloods, 
The  fish  and  locust,  the  liver  and  the  spleen."  3 

He  has  also  noted  that  the  American  Indian  partakes  of  the  liver,  as  well 
as  of  the  heart  of  a  fallen  enemy,  in  order  to  the  assimilating  of  the  enemy's 
life ;  *  and  he  finds  many  correspondences  between  the  desert  dwellers 
of  America  and  of  Arabia.  "  The  [American]  *  brave,'  "  he  says, 
"  stamps  a  red  hand  upon  his  mouth  to  show  that  he  has  drunk  the 
blood  of  a  foe.  Of  the  Utaybah  *  Harami,'  it  is  similarly  related,  that 
after  mortal  combat,  he  tastes  the  dead  man's  gore."  ^ 

Even  in  modern  English,  the  word  "  liver "  has  been  thought  by 
many  to  represent  "  life  "  or  "blood."  Thus,  in  one  of  our  dictionaries 
we  are  told  that  the  word  is  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
Scandinavian  verb  "to  live,"  "because  [the  liver  is]  of  so  great  import- 
ance to  lifcy  or  animal  vitality."  ^     In  another,  its  derivation  is  ascribed 

ITimaeus  of  Locri,   cited    in   Liddell   and    Scott's    Greek  Eng.   Lex.,  s.   v., 

"  Hepar."     See  also  page  108  f,  supra. 

2  Pollux's  Onomasticon,  II.,  4,  226.  '^Pilgrim,  to  Mec.  and  Med.,  p.  376. 

4  See  page  128,  supra. 

^  Pilgrim,  to  Mec.  and  Med.,  p.  378.     See  also  page  129  f.,  supra. 

•Richardson's  Eng.  Diet.,  s.  v.,  "Liver." 


APPENDIX,  305 

to  loJ)per,  and  lapper,  "to  coagulate,"  "  from  its  resemblance  to  a  mass 
of  clotted  blood."  1 

Among  the  aborigines  of  America  the  prominence  given  to  the  blood 
and  to  the  heart  was  as  great,  and  as  distinctly  marked,  as  among  the 
peoples  of  ancient  Egypt,  or  any  other  portion  of  the  far  East.  This 
truth  has  been  brought  out  most  fully  by  the  valuable  personal  researches 
of  Mr.  Frank  H.  Gushing,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  into  the 
mythology  and  sociology  of  the  Zunis  of  New  Mexico.  From  his  re- 
ports it  would  appear  that,  according  to  the  priests  of  that  people,  "  all 
true  fetiches  [or,  material  symbols  of  spiritual  existences]  are  either 
actual  petrifactions  of  the  animals  they  represent,  or  were  such  origin- 
ally"— according  as  the  present  form  of  the  fetish  is  natural,  or  is 
mechanically  fashioned.  These  rude  stone  images  of  the  animals  of 
prey,  "  which  are  of  course  mere  concretions  or  strangely  eroded  rock 
forms,"  are  supposed  to  be  the  shriveled  and  distorted  remains  of  beings 
which  were  long  ago  turned  to  stone.  Within  these  fetishes  the  heart 
of  the  original  animal  still  exists ;  ("  his  heart  still  lives,  even  though  his 
person  be  changed  to  stone "  ;)  and  it  needs  for  its  sustenance  the 
blood,  or  the  "  life  fluid,"  of  the  game  which  was,  from  the  beginning, 
the  ordinary  prey  of  that  animal.  Hence  each  fetish  is  pleased  to  hear 
the  prayers  and  to  give  success  to  the  hunting  of  its  present  possessor, 
in  order  to  the  obtaining  of  the  life  fluid  which  is  essential  to  its  nour- 
ishing. 

These  prey  fetishes  of  the  Zuiiis  belong  to  the  Prey-God  Brotherhood, 
and  when  not  in  use  they  are  guarded  by  the  "  Keeper  of  the  Medicine 
of  the  Deer."  Before  they  are  employed  in  a  hunt,  there  is  an  assem- 
bly for  their  worship ;  and,  after  ceremonial  prayer  to  them  for  their 
assistance,  they  are  taken  out  for  service  by  members  of  the  Brother- 
hood to  which  they  belong.  "  The  fetich  is  then  placed  in  a  little  cres- 
cent-shaped bag  of  buckskin  which  the  hunter  wears  suspended  over  the 
left  breast  (or,  heart)  by  a  buckskin  thong,  which  is  tied  above  the  right 

1  Annandale's  Ogilvie's  Imperial  Diet.,  s.  v.,  "  Liver." 
26* 


3o6  APPENDIX. 

shoulder."  When  the  trail  of  the  animal  hunted  is  discovered  by  the 
hunter,  he  finds  a  place ^where  the  animal  has  lain  down,  and  there  he 
makes  an  oblation  by  depositing  his  offering  "  in  exactly  the  spot  over 
w^hich  the  heart  of  the  animal  is  supposed  to  have  rested."  Then  he 
brings  out  his  fetish  and  with  certain  ceremonies  and  invocations  he  puts 
it  on  the  track  of  the  prey. 

"As  soon  as  the  animal  is  dead,  he  [the  hunter]  lays  open  its  viscera, 
cuts  through  the  diaphragm,  and  makes  an  incision  in  the  aorta,  or  in 
the  sac  which  incloses  the  heart.  He  then  takes  out  [of  its  bag]  the  prey 
fetich,  breathes  on  it,  and  addresses  it  thus  :  .  .  .  *  Si !  My  father, 
this  day  of  the  blood  [literally  of  the  '  life  fluid ']  of  a  game-being,  thou 
shalt  drink,  ([shalt]  water  thyself).  With  it  thou  shalt  enlarge  (add 
unto)  thy  heart.'  He  then  dips  the  fetich  into  the  blood  which  the  sac 
still  contains,  continuing  meanwhile  the  prayer,  as  follows :  .  .  . 
Likewise,  I,  a  "done"  being  [a  living  human  being],  with  the  blood 
[the  "life-fluid,"  which  is]  the  flesh  of  a  raw  being  (game  animal), 
shall  enlarge  (add  unto)  my  heart.'  Which  [prayer]  finished,  he  scoops 
up,  with  his  hand,  some  of  the  blood  and  sips  it ;  then  tearing  forth  the 
liver,  ravenously  devours  a  part  of  it  [as  the  blood-flesh,  or,  the  blood 
which  is  the  flesh],  and  exclaims,  '  A-lak-kwd  P  (Thanks)."  After 
all  this,  he  deposits  a  portion  of  the  clot  of  blood  from  within  the 
heart,  commingled  with  vaiious  articles,  in  a  grave  digged  on  the  spot 
where  the  animal  has  died ;  repeating,  as  he  does  this,  a  prayer  which 
seems  to  show  his  belief  that  the  slain  animal  still  lives  in  this  buried 
heart-blood.  Again,  when  the  game  is  at  the  hunter's  home,  the 
women  "  lay  on  either  side  of  its  body,  next  to  the  heart,  an  ear  of  corn 
(significant  of  renewed  life),  and  say  prayers  "  over  it.  Finally  "  the 
fetich  is  returned  to  the  Keeper  of  the  Deer  Medicine,  with  thanksgiv- 
ing and  a  prayer,  not  unlike  that  uttered  on  taking  it  forth."  i 

In  these  ceremonies,  it  is  evident  that  the  Zunis,  like  the  Orientals, 

1  See  Cushing's  paper  on  "  Zuiii  Fetiches,"  in  Second  Annual  Report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology ,  pp.  3-43. 


APPENDIX,  307 

recognize  the  blood  as  the  life,  the  heart  as  the  epitome  of  life,  the  liver 
as  a  congealed  mass  of  blood,  and  the  transference  of  blood  as  the  trans- 
ference of  life.  Moreover,  there  is  here  a  trace  of  that  idea  of  the  re- 
vivifying, by  blood-bathing,  of  a  being  that  had  turned  into  stone ;  which 
is  found  in  the  legends  of  Arabia,  and  of  the  Norseland  (See  page  119  f., 
supra).  Is  there  not,  indeed,  a  reference  to  this  world-wide  figure  of 
the  living  stone,  in  the  Apostle's  suggestion,  that  those  who  were  counted 
as  worthless  stones  by  an  ignorant  world  are  vivified  by  the  renewing 
blood  of  Christ,  and  so  are  shown  to  be  a  holy  people  ?  "  As  new  born 
babes  [renewed  by  the  blood  of  Christ],  long  for  the  spiritual  milk  [the 
means  of  sacred  nourishment]  which  is  without  guile,  that  ye  may  grow 
thereby  unto  salvation ;  if  ye  have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious  [if, 
indeed,  ye  have  been  made  alive  by  the  touch  of  his  blood]  :  unto  whom 
coming,  [unto  Him  who  is]  a  Living  Stone  rejected  indeed  of  men,  but 
with  God  [who  knows  the  possibilities  of  that  Stone],  precious, — ye 
also,  as  living  stones  [as  new  blood-vivified  petrifactions],  are  built  up 
a  spiritual  house,  to  be  a  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  holy  sacrifices, 
acceptable  to  God  through  Jesus  Chiist."  ^ 

There  is  another  gleam  of  this  idea  of  the  stones  vivified  by  blood,  in 
a  custom  reported  from  among  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia,  in  a 
private  letter  written  by  a  careful  observer  of  Indian  habits  and  cere- 
monies. When  the  Indian  girls  arrived  at  the  years  of  womanhood 
they  were  accustomed,  there  as  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world,  to 
pass  through  a  formal  initiation  into  a  new  stage  of  existence.  Going 
apart  by  themselves,  at  some  distance  from  their  settlements,  they 
would  lacerate  their  bodies,  in  order  that  blood  might  flow  freely ;  and, 
laying  a  series  of  stones  in  a  row,  they  would  walk  over  them,  allowing 
their  blood  to  fall  upon  them.  The  young  woman  who  could  cover  the 
largest  number  of  stones  with  her  blood,  had  the  fairest  prospect  in 
life,  in  the  line  of  a  woman's  peculiar  mission.  This  certainly  would 
be  a  not  unnatural  thought  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  belief  that  stones 
1 1  Peter  2  :  2-5. 


308  APPENDIX. 

anointed  with  freely  surrendered  blood,  can  be  made  to  have  life  in 
themselves. 

It  is  much  the  same  in  war  as  in  the  hunt,  among  the  Zunis.  "  As 
with  the  hunter,  so  with  the  warrior ;  the  fetich  is  fed  on  the  life-blood 
of  the  slain."  ^  And  here,  again,  is  a  link  of  connection  between  can- 
nibalism and  religious  worship.  Another  illustration  of  the  preeminence 
given  to  the  heart,  as  the  epitome  of  the  veiy  being  itself,  is  the  fact 
that  the  animals  pictured  on  the  pottery  of  these  people,  and  of  neigh- 
boring peoples,  commonly  had  the  rude  conventional  figure  of  a  heart 
represented  in  its  place  on  each  animal ;  as  if  to  show  that  the  animal 
was  living,  and  that  it  had  a  living  soul.  ^ 

At  the  other  side  of  the  world,  as  it  were,  in  Borneo,  there  is  given 
similar  preeminence,  as  among  the  Zunis,  to  the  blood  as  the  life,  to  the 
liver  as  a  representative  of  blood,  and  to  the  heart  as  the  epitome  of  the 
life.  "  The  principal  sacrifice  of  the  Sakarang  Dayaks,"  says  Mr.  St. 
John,  "  is  killing  a  pig  and  examining  its  hearty  which  is  supposed  to 
foretell  events  with  the  utmost  certainty."  This  custom  seems  to  have 
grown  out  of  the  idea  that  the  heart  of  any  God  devoted  organism,  as 
the  embodiment  of  its  life  is  closely  linked  with  the  Author  of  all  life ; 
who  is  the  Disposer  of  all  events.  A  human  heart  is  naturally  deemed 
preferable  to  a  pig's  ;  but  the  latter  is  the  common  substitute  for  the 
former.  Yet,  "  not  many  years  ago,"  one  of  the  Sakarang  chiefs  put 
to  death  a  lad  "  of  his  own  race,"  remarking,  as  he  did  so :  "  It  has 
been  our  custom  heretofore  to  examine  the  heart  of  a  pig,  but  now  we 
will  examine  a  human  one." '  The  Kayans,  again,  examine  "  the 
heart  and  liver ,"  as  preliminary  to  covenant-making.*  Among  the 
Dayaks,  the  blood  of  a  fowl  sacrificed  by  one  who  is  supposed  to  be  in 

1  Cushing's  "  Zuni  Fetiches,"  p.  43. 

2  See  "  Illustrated  Catalogue  of  Collections  from  Indians  of  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona,"  1879, '"  Second  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  0/  Ethnology,  Figures  361- 
387;  421-430. 

8  St.  John's  Life  in  Far  East,  I.,  74  f.  4 Ibid.,  I.,  115  f. 


APPENDIX.  309 

favor  with  the  gods,  has  peculiar  potency  when  sprinkled  upon  "  the 
lintels  of  the  doors."  ^  And  a  house  will  be  deserted  by  its  Dayak 
inhabitants,  **  if  a  drop  of  blood  be  seen  sprinkled  on  the  floor,  unless 
they  can  prove  whence  it  came."  ^ 

An  incidental  connection  of  this  recognition  of  the  blood  as  the  life, 
with  the  primitive  rite  of  blood  covenanting,  is  seen  in  one  form  of  the 
maiTiage  rite  among  the  Dayaks.^ — In  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting 
itself,  as  consummated  between  Mr.  St.  John  and  Singauding,  a  cigarette 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  covenanting  parties  was  smoked  by  them 
mutually  (See  page  51,  supra).  In  the  marriage  covenant,  a  cigar  and 
betel  leaf  prepared  with  the  areca  nut  are  put  first  into  the  mouth  of  the 
bride  by  the  bridegroom,  and  then  into  the  mouth  of  the  bridegroom 
by  the  bride ;  while  two  fowls  are  waved  over  their  heads  by  a  priest, 
and  then  killed ;  their  blood  being  "  caught  in  two  cups  "  for  examina- 
tion, instead  of  for  drinking.* 

So,  whether  it  be  the  heart  as  the  primal  fountain  of  blood,  or 
the  liver  as  the  great  receptacle  of  blood,  or  the  blood,  itself  in  its 
supposed  outflowing  from  the  heart  through  the  liver,  that  is  made 
prominent  in  the  rites  and  teachings  of  primitive  peoples,  the  root- 
idea  is  still  the  same, — that  "  as  to  the  life  of  all  flesh,  the  blood 
thereof  is  all  one  with  the  life  thereof; "  ^  and  that  as  a  man  is  in 
his  blood,  so  he  is  in  his  nature ;  that  his  "  good  blood "  or  "  his 
bad  blood,"  his  "hot  blood"  or  his  "cold  blood,"  will  be  evidenced 
in  his  daily  walk ;  for  that  which  shows  out  in  his  outer  life  is  "  in 
the  blood  "  which  is  his  inner  life ;  and  that  in  order  to  a  change  of 
his  nature  there  must  in  some  way  be  a  change  of  his  blood.  Hence, 
the  universal  outreaching  of  the  race  after  new  blood  which  is  new  life. 
Hence,  the  provisions  of  God  for  new  life  through  that  blood  which  is 
the  Life. 

1  St.  John's  Life  in  Far  East,  T.,  160.  *  Hid.,  I.,  187. 

8  This  is  a  different  form  from  that  reported  at  page  192  f.,  supra. 
4  St.  John's  Life  in  Far  East,  I.,  61.  ^ Lev.  17  :  14. 


3IO  APPENDIX, 


TRANSMIGRATION   OF  SOULS. 

A  belief  in  the  tiansmigration  of  souls,  from  man  to  the  lower 
animals,  and  vice  versa,  has  been  found  among  various  peoples,  in  all 
the  historic  ages.  The  origin  of  this  belief  has  been  a  puzzling  question 
to  rationalistic  myth-students.  Starting  out,  as  do  most  of  these  students, 
with  the  rigid  theory  that  man  worked  himself  slowly  upward  from 
the  lowest  savagery,  without  any  external  revelation,  they  are  confronted 
with  primitive  customs  on  every  side  which  go  to  show  a  popular  belief 
in  soul-transmigration,  and  which  they  must  try  to  account  for  within 
the  limits  of  their  unproven  theory.  The  result  is,  that  they  first  pre- 
suppose some  conception  in  the  primitive  man's  mind  of  spiritual 
things,  and  then  they  conveniently  refer  all  confusing  facts  to  that  pre- 
supposed conception.  "Animism"  is  one  of  the  pet  names  for  this  re- 
solvent of  grave  difficulties.  And  when  "  Animism  "  is  supplemented  by 
"Fetishism,"  "Zoolatry,"  and  " Totemism,"  the  requisite  number  of 
changes  is  secured  for  the  meeting  of  any  number  of  perplexing  facts  in 
the  religious  belief  of  primitive  man  everywhere. 

As  a  matter  of  simple  fact,  man's  conception  of  spiritual  existences  is 
not  accounted  for  by  the  "scientists."  And  the  claim  that  such  a  con- 
ception was  innate  in  primitive  man,  or  that  it  was  a  natural  growth  in 
man's  unaided  progress,  is  at  the  best  but  an  unproved  theory.  In  the 
early  part  of  this  centuiy,  there  were  thousands  of  deaf-mutes  in  the 
United  States,  who  had  never  been  educated  by  the  system  which  is 
now  so  effective  for  that  class  in  the  community.  This  gave  a  rare  op- 
portunity of  learning  the  normal  spiritual  attainments  of  unsophisticated 
man ;  of  man  uninfluenced  by  external  revelation  or  traditions.  Nor 
was  this  opportunity  unimproved  for  a  good  purpose.  When  the  Rev. 
Thomas  H.  Gallaudet  (himself  a  philosophical  scientist)  introduced  the 
system  of  deaf-mute  instruction  into  this  country,  he  made  a  careful 
examination  into  the  intelligence  of  all  the  deaf  mutes  brought  under 


APPENDIX.  311 

his  care,  on  this  point  of  spiritual  conceptions.  His  declaration  was, 
that  he  never  found  a  person  who,  prior  to  specific  instruction,  had  any 
conception  of  the  nature  or  the  existence  of  God.  A  single  illustra- 
tion of  Mr.  Gallaudet's  experiences  in  this  line  will  suffice  for  the  entire 
series  of  them.  A  young  girl  of  sixteen  years  of  age,  or  so,  who  proved 
to  be  of  far  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  and  mental  capacity,  had 
been  brought  up  in  a  New  England  Christian  home.  She  had  been 
accustomed  to  bow  her  head  when  grace  was  said  at  the  daily  meals, 
to  kneel  in  family  prayer,  and  to  attend  church  regularly,  from  early 
childhood ;  yet  she  had  no  idea  of  God,  no  thought  of  spiritual  ex- 
istences of  any  sort  whatsoever,  until  she  was  instructed  in  those  things, 
in  the  line  of  her  new  education.^  A  writer  on  this  subject,  who  differed 
with  Mr.  Gallaudet  in  his  conclusions  from  these  facts,  added :  "  This 
testimony  is  confirmed  by  that  of  all  the  teachers  of  the  deaf  and  dumb, 
and  the  fact  must  be  admitted."  ^  Until  some  human  being  can  be  found 
with  a  conception  of  spiritual  existences,  without  his  having  received 
instruction  on  that  point  from  those  who  went  before  him,  the  claim — 
in  the  face  of  such  facts  as  these — that  primitive  man  ever  obtained  his 
spiritual  knowledge  or  his  spiritual  conceptions  from  within  himself 
alone,  or  without  an  external  revelation  to  him,  is  an  unscientific  assump- 
tion, in  the  investigation  of  the  origin  of  religions  in  the  world. 

But,  with  man's  conception  of  spiritual  things,  already  existing* 
(however  he  came  by  it),  and  with  the  existing  belief  that  the  blood  is 
the  life,  or  the  soul,  or  the  nature,  of  an  organism,  the  idea  of  the  trans- 
migration of  souls  as  identical  with  the  transference  of  blood,  is  a  very 
natural  corollary.     The  blood  being  the  life,  or  the  soul,  of  man  and  of 

1  As  to  this  specific  instance,  I  can  bear  personal  testimony,  from  my  frequent 
communications  on  the  subject,  with  the  person  whose  experience  is  here  recited. 
^Atn.  Annals  of  Deaf  and  Dumb,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  134 

8  Paul's  claim,  in  Romans  i  :  18-23,  is  not  that  man  knows  God  intuitively ; 
but  that,  having  the  knowledge  of  God,  which  he  does  have  by  tradition,  man 
ought  not  to  liken  God  to  **  four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things." 


312  APPENDIX. 

beast,  if  the  blood  of  man  passes  into  the  body  of  a  beast,  or  the  blood 
of  a  beast  passes  into  the  body  of  a  man,  why  should  it  not  be  inferred 
that  the  soul  of  the  man,  or  of  the  beast,  transmigrated  accordingly  ? 
If  the  Hindoo,  believing  that  the  blood  of  man  is  the  soul  of  man, 
sees  the  blood  of  a  man  drunk  up  by  a  tiger,  is  it  strange  that  he  should 
look  upon  that  tiger  as  having  within  him  the  soul  of  the  Hindoo, 
which  has  been  thus  appropriated  ?  If  the  South  African  supposes  that, 
by  his  drinking  the  blood  or  eating  the  heart  of  a  lion,  he  appropriates 
the  lion's  courage,^  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  when  he  sees  a  lion  lick- 
ing the  blood  and  eating  the  heart  of  a  South  African,  he  should  infer 
that  the  lion  is  thereby  the  possessor  of  whatever  was  distinctive  in  the 
Zulu,  or  the  Hottentot,  personality  ? 

Indeed,  as  has  been  already  stated,  in  the  body  of  this  work,  there  is 
still  a  question  among  physiologists,  how  far  the  transference  of  blood 
from  one  organism  to  another  carries  a  transmigration  of  soul  (of  the 
psyche,  not  of  \}s\&  pneuma)?  However  this  may  be,  the  popular  belief 
in  such  transmigration  is  fully  accounted  for,  by  the  recognized  convic- 
tion that  the  blood  is  the  soul. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  there  is  an  added  force  in  the  Mosaic  pro- 
hibition— repeated  as  it  is  in  the  Apostolic  Encyclical — of  the  eating,  or 
drinking,  of  the  blood  of  the  lower  animals  ;  with  the  possibility  of 
thereby  being  made  a  partaker  of  the  lower  animal  nature.  And  what 
fresh  potency  is  given  to  Elijah's  prophecy  against  Ahab  and  Jezebel, 
by  this  conception  of  the  transference  of  nature  by  the  transference  of 
blood  !  «  Thus  saith  the  Lord  [to  Ahab]  Hast  thou  killed  [Hast  thou 
taken  the  blood  of  Naboth  ?],  and  also  taken  possesion  [of  Naboth's 
vineyard]  ?  .  .  .  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  In  the  place  where  dogs 
licked  the  blood  of  Naboth,  shall  dogs  lick  thy  blood,  even  thine. 
.  .  .  And  of  Jezebel  also  spake  the  Lord,  saying.  The  dogs  shall 
eat  Jezebel  by  the  ramparts  of  Jezreel."  The  blood,  the  life,  the 
soul  of  royalty,  shall  become  a  portion  of  the  very  life  of  the  prowl- 

»  See  page  136,  supra.  ^  See  page  133  f. ,  supra. 


APPENDIX.  313 

ing  scavenger  dogs  of  the  royal  city.    And  it  came  to  pass  accord- 
ingly, to  both  Ahab  and  Jezebel.^ 

THE  BLOOD-RITE  IN   BURMAH. 

Mention  is  made,  in  the  text  of  this  volume,^  of  the  fact  that  the 
primitive  rite  of  blood-covenanting  is  in  practice  all  along  the  Chinese 
border  of  the  Burman  Empire.  In  illustration  of  this  truth,  the  following 
description  of  the  rite  and  its  linkings,  is  given  by  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Luther, 
of  Philadelphia,  formerly  a  missionary  among  the  Karens,  in  Burmah. 
This  interesting  sketch  was  received,  in  its  present  form,  at  too  late  a 
date  for  insertion  in  its  place  in  the  text;  hence  its  appearance  here. 

"  The  blood-covenant  is  well  known,  and  commonly  practised  among 
the  Karens  of  Burmah,  There  are  three  methods  of  making  brother- 
hood, or  truce,  between  members  of  one  tribe  and  those  of  another. 

"  The  first  is  the  common  method  of  eating  together.  This,  how- 
ever, is  of  but  little  binding  force,  being  a  mere  agreement  to  refrain 
from  hostilities  for  a  limited  time,  and  the  truce  thus  made  is  liable  to 
be  broken  at  the  briefest  notice. 

"  The  second  method  is  that  of  planting  a  tree.  The  parties  to  this 
covenant  select  a  young  and  vigorous  sapling,  plant  it  with  certain 
ceremonies,  and  covenant  with  each  other  to  keep  peace  so  long  as  the 
tree  lives.  A  covenant  thus  made  is  regarded  as  of  greater  force  than 
that  effected  or  sealed  by  the  first  method. 

"  The  third  method  is  that  of  the  blood-covenant,  properly  so-called. 

In  this  covenant  the  chief  stands  as  the  representative  of  the  tribe,  if  it 

be  a  tribal  agreement ;  or,  the  father  as  the  representative  of  the  family, 

if  it  be  a  more  limited  covenant.     The  ceremonies   are  public   and 

solemn.     The  most  important  act  is,  of  course,  the  mingling  of  the 

blood.     Blood   is  drawn  from  the  thigh  of  each  of  the  covenanting 

parties,  and  mingled  together.     Then  each  dips  his  finger  into  the  blood 

and  applies  it  to  his  lips.     In  some  cases,  it  is  said  that  the  blood  is 

1 1  Kings  21 :  17-23  ;  22  :  35-38 ;  2  Kings  9  :  30-37.  «  At  page  44,  supra. 

27 


314  APPENDIX. 

actually  drunk ;  but  the  more  common  method  is  that  of  touching  the 
lips  with  the  blood-stained  finger.^ 

"  This  covenant  is  of  the  utmost  force.  It  covers  not  merely  an 
agreement  of  peace,  or  truce,  but  also  a  promise  of  mutual  assistance 
in  peace  and  in  M^ar.  It  also  conveys  to  the  covenanting  parties  mutual 
tribal  rites.  If  they  are  chiefs,  the  covenant  embraces  their  entire 
tribes.  If  one  is  a  private  individual,  his  immediate  family  and  direct 
descendants  are  included  in  the  agreement. 

"  I  never  heard  of  the  blood-covenant  being  broken.  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  inquired  particularly  on  this  point,  because  the  w^ay 
in  which  the  blood-covenant  was  spoken  of,  always  implied  that  its  rup- 
ture was  an  unheard-of  thing.  It  is  regarded  as  a  perfectly  valid  excuse 
for  any  amount  of  reckless  devotion,  or  of  unreasoning  sacrifice  on  be- 
half of  another,  for  a  Karen  to  say:  *  Thui  faw  tJi' coh  it;''  literally, 
*  The  blood, — we  have  drunk  it  together.'  An  appeal  for  help  on  the 
basis  of  the  blood-covenant  is  never  disregarded. 

"  A  few  of  our  missionaries  have  entered  into  the  blood-covenant 
with  Karen  tribes ;  though  most  have  been  deterred,  either  from  never 
having  visited  the  *  debatable  land '  where  the  strong  arm  of  British 
rule  does  not  reach,  or  else,  as  in  most  instances,  from  a  repugnance  to 
the  act  by  which  the  covenant  is  sealed.  In  one  instance,  at  least, 
where  a  missionary  did  enter  into  covenant  with  one  of  these  tribes, 
the  agreement  has  been  interpreted  as  covering  not  only  his  children, 
but  one  who  was  so  happy  as  to  marry  his  daughter.  In  an  enforced 
absence  of  fifteen  years  from  the  scene  of  his  early  missionary  labors 
nothing  has  been  at  once  so  touching  and  so  painful  to  the  writer,  as  the 
frequent  messages  and  letters  asking  *  When  will  you  come  back  to 
yottr  people  f      Yet,  mine  is  only  the  inherited  right  above  mentioned. 

"  The  blood-covenant  gives  even  a  foreigner  every  right  which  he 
would  have,  if  bom  a  member  of  the  tribe.  As  an  instance,  the  writer 
once  shot  a  hawk  in  a  Karen  village,  just  as  it  was  swooping  down 
1  See  page  154,  supra. 


APPENDIX.  3 1  5 

upon  a  chicken.  He  was  surjDiised  to  find,  an  half-hour  afterward, 
that  his  personal  attendant,  a  straightforward  Mountain  Karen,  had 
gone  through  the  village  and  *  collected '  a  fat  hen  from  each  house. 
When  remonstrated  with,  the  mountaineer  replied,  *  Why,  Teacher,  it 
is  your  right, — that  is  our  custom, — ^you  are  one  of  us.  These  people 
wouldn't  undei-stand  it  if  I  did  not  ask  for  a  chicken  from  each  house, 
when  you  killed  the  hawk.' 

"  In  the  wilder  Karen  regions,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  travel  unless 
one  is  in  blood-covenant  with  the  chiefs,  while  on  the  other  hand  one 
is  perfecdy  safe,  if  in  that  covenant.  The  disregard  of  this  fact  has 
cost  valuable  lives.  When  a  stranger  enters  Karen  territory,  the  chiefs 
order  the  paths  closed.  This  is  done  by  tying  the  long  elephant  grass 
across  the  paths.  On  reaching  such  a  signal,  the  usual  inquiry  in  the 
traveling  party  is,  *  Who  is  in  blood-covenant  with  this  tribe  ? '  If  one 
is  found,  even  among  the  lowest  servants,  his  covenant  covers  the 
party,  on  the  way,  as  far  as  to  the  principal  village  or  hill  fortress. 
The  party  goes  into  camp,  and  sends  this  man  on  as  an  ambassador. 
Usually,  guides  are  sent  back  to  conduct  the  party  at  once  to  the  chief's 
house.  If  no  one  is  in  covenant  with  the  tribe,  and  the  wisp  of  grass 
is  broken  and  the  party  passes  on,  the  lives  of  the  trespassers  are  for- 
feited. A  sudden  attack  in  some  defile,  or  a  night  surprise,  scatters  the 
party  and  drives  the  survivors  back  the  way  they  came.  It  is  said  by 
the  Karens  that  Mr.  Cooper,  the  famous  English  explorer  of  China  and 
Thibet,  was  killed  'because  he  had  broken  the  grass.'  A  day's  delay 
for  the  blood-covenant  would  have  saved  his  life,  and  given  him  time 
to  complete  his  most  important  labors.  The  men  who  killed  him  would 
have  been  his  devoted  body-guard,  ready  and  willing  to  give  their  lives 
in  defence  of  his.  If  the  Karen  account  of  his  death  is  true,  it  is  most 
unfortunate  that  he  entered  the  Karen  country  from  China  (where  the 
blood-covenant  does  not  now  prevail),  and  so  was  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  by  so  slight  a  concession  to  Karen  custom  he  could  obtain  a  guar- 
antee of  safe  conduct  for  at  least  a  thousand  miles." 


3l6  APPENDIX. 

Another  account  of  the  blood-covenant  rite  in  Burmah  is  kindly 
furnished  to  me,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  M.  H.  Bixby,  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island ;  who  was  also  for  some  years  a  missionary  among  the  Karens. 
He  says : 

"  In  my  first  journey  over  the  mountains  of  Burmah,  into  Shanland, 
toward  Western  China,  I  passed  through  several  tribes  of  wild  Karens 
among  whom  the  practice  of  *  covenanting  by  blood  '  prevailed. 

" '  If  you  mean  what  you  say,'  said  the  old  chief  of  the  Gecho  tribe 
to  me,  referring  to  my  professions  of  friendship,  '  You  will  drink  truth 
with  me.'  *  Well,  what  is  drinking  truth  ? '  I  said.  In  reply,  he  said  : 
*  This  is  our  custom.  Each  chief  pierces  his  arm — draws  blood — 
mingles  it  in  a  vessel  with  whisky,  and  drinks  of  it;  both  promising 
to  be  true  and  faithful  to  each  other,  down  to  the  seventh  generation.' 

**  After  the  chiefs  had  drunk  of  the  mingled  blood  and  whisky,  each 
one  of  their  followers  drunk  of  it  also,  and  were  thereby  included  in 
the  covenant  of  friendship. 

"  A  company  of  Shans  laid  a  plot  to  kill  me  and  my  company  in 
Shanland,  for  the  purpose  of  plunder.  They  entered  into  covenant 
with  each  other  by  drinking  the  blood  of  their  leader  mingled  with 
whisky,  or  a  kind  of  beer  made  from  rice. 

"  Those  wild  mountain  tribes  have  strange  traditions  which  indicate 
that  they  once  had  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  although  now  they 
have  no  written  language.  Some  of  the  Karen  tribes  have  a  written 
language,  given  them  by  the  missionaries. 

"  The  covenant,  also,  exists  in  modified  forms,  in  which  the  blood  is 
omitted." 

BLOOD-STAINED  TREE  OF  THE  COVENANT.% 

In  various  parts  of  the  East,  a  tree  is  given  prominence  in  the  rite  of 
blood-covenanting.     In  Burmah,  as  above  shown,  one  mode  of  cove- 
nanting is  by  the  mutual  planting  of  a  tree.^    In  Timor,  a  newly  planted 
*  See  page  313,  supra. 


APPENDIX.  3 1  7 

fig-tree  is  made  to  bear  a  portion  of  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  and  to 
remain  as  a  witness  to  the  sacred  rite  itself.^  In  one  portion  of  Central 
Africa,  a  forked  pahn  branch  is  held  by  the  two  parties,  at  their  entering 
into  blood-friendship ;  ''■  and,  in  another  region,  the  ashes  of  a  burned 
tree  and  the  blood  of  the  covenanting  brothers  are  brought  into  combi- 
nation, in  the  use  of  a  knotted  palm  branch  which  the  brothers  together 
hold.3  And,  again,  in  Canaan,  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  the  planting  of 
a  tree  was  an  element  in  covenant  making ;  as  shown  in  the  narrative 
of  the  covenant  which  Abraham  cut  with  Abimelech,  at  Beer-sheba.* 

It  may,  indeed,  be  fair  to  suppose  that  the  trees  at  Hebron,  which 
marked  the  dwelling-place  of  Abraham  were  covenant-trees,  witnessing 
the  covenant  between  Abraham  and  the  three  Amorite  chiefs ;  and  that 
therefore  they  have  prominence  in  the  sacred  story.  "  Now  he  [Abram] 
dwelt  by  [or,  in :  Hebrew,  beelonay  ^  J'7X3)] ;  the  [four]  oaks  [or, 
terebinths],  of  Mamre,  the  Amorite,  brother  of  Eschol,  and  brother  of 
Aner ;  and  these  [three  it  was  who]  were  confederate  [literally,  were 
masters  of  the  covenant]  with  [the  fourth  one]  Abram."  ^  This  ren- 
dering certainly  gives  a  reason  for  the  prominent  mention  of  the  trees  at 
Hebron,  in  conjunction  with  Abram's  covenant  with  Amorite  chieftains ; 
and  it  accords  with  Oriental  customs  of  former  days,  and  until  to-day. 
So,  also,  it  would  seem  that  the  tree  which  witnessed*  the  confirma- 
tion, or  the  recognition,  of  the  covenant  between  another  Abimelech,  and 
the  men  of  Shechem  and  the  men  of  Beth-millo,  by  the  pillar  (the 
symbol  of  Baal-bereeth)  "^  in  Shechem,^  was  a  covenant-tree,  after  the 
Oriental  custom  in  sacred  covenanting. 

There  is  apparently  a  trace  of  the  blood-covenanting  and  tree-plant- 
ing rite  of  jfrimitive  times,  in  the  blood-stained  "  Fiery  Cross  "  of  the 

1  See  page  53,  supra.  ^  See  page  35,  supra.  »  See  page  37,  supra. 

*  Gen.  21  :  33.  ^  See  Gen.  13  :  18  ;  14  :  13  ;  18  :  i. 

'  The  covenant  was  "  with  "  [Hebrew,  Q^*  '««,  not  "  with  "  as  an  instrument, 
but  "  with"  as  in  the  presence  of,  as  accompanied  by]  the  tree  at  Shechem. 

7  See  page  218,  supra^  note.  *  Judges  9  :  i-6. 

27* 


3l8  APPENDIX. 

Scottish  Highlands,  with  its  correspondent  Arabian  symbol  of  tribal 
covenant-duties  in  the  hour  of  battle.  Von  Wrede,  describing  his  travels 
in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Arabia,  tells  of  the  use  of  this  symbol^  he 
saw  it  employed,  as  preliminary  to  a  tribal  warfare.  A  war-council  had 
decided  on  conflict.  Then,  "  the  fire  which  had  burned  in  the  midst 
of  the  circle  was  newly  kindled  with  a  great  heap  of  wood,  and  the 
up-leaping  flames  were  greeted  with  loud  rejoicing.  The  green  branch 
of  a  nubk  tree  [sometimes  called  the  *  lote-tree,'  and  again  known  as 
the  *  dom,'  although  it  is  not  the  dom  palm]  ^  was  then  brought,  and 
also  a  sheep,  whose  feet  were  at  once  tied  by  the  oldest  shaykh.  After 
these  preparations,  the  latter  seized  the  branch,  spoke  a  prayer  over  it, 
and  committed  it  to  the  flames.  As  soon  as  every  trace  of  green  had 
disappeared,  he  snatched  it  from  the  fire,  again  said  a  short  prayer,  and 
cut  with  his  jembeeyeh  [his  short  sword]  the  throat  of  the  sheep,  with 
whose  blood  the  yet  burning  branch  was  quenched.  He  then  tore  a 
number  of  little  twigs  from  the  burnt  branch,  and  gave  them  to  as 
many  Bed^'ween,  who  hastened  off  with  them  in  various  directions. 
The  black  bloody  branch  was  then  planted  in  the  earth.  .  .  .  The 
little  twigs,  which  the  shaykh  cut  off  and  gave  to  the  Bed^'ween,  serve 
as  alarm  signals,  with  which  the  messengers  hasten  from  valley  to 
valley,  calling  the  sons  of  the  tribe  to  the  impending  war  [by  this 
blood-stained  symbol  of  the  sacred  covenant  which  binds  them  in 
brotherhood].  None  dare  remain  behind,  without  loss  of  honor,  when 
the  chosen  [covenant]  sign  appears  at  his  encampment,  and  the  voice  of 
its  bearer  calls  to  the  war.  ...  At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  [thus 
inaugurated],  the  shaykhs  of  the  propitiated  tribe  return  the  branches  to 
the  fire,  and  let  them  bum  to  ashes."  ^ 

How  strikingly  this  parallels  the  use  and  the  symbolism  of  the  Fiery 
Cross,  in  the  Scottish  Highlands,  as  portrayed  in  The  Lady  of  the  Lake. 
Sir  Roderick  Dhu  would  summon  Clan  Alpine  against  the  King. 

1  Robinson's  Biblical  Researches ,  II.,  210  f.,  note, 
s  Von  Wrede's  Reise  in  Hadhramaut,  p.  197  f. 


APPENDIX.  319 

**  A  heap  of  withered  boughs  was  piled. 
Of  juniper  and  rowan  wild. 
Mingled  with  shivers  from  the  oak. 
Rent  by  the  lightning's  recent  stroke. 
Brian  the  Hermit  by  it  stood. 
Barefooted,  in  his  frock  and  coat. 


*Twas  all  prepared ; — and  from  the  rock 

A  goat,  the  patriarch  of  the  flock. 

Before  the  kindling  fire  was  laid. 

And  pierced  by  Roderick's  ready  blade. 

Patient  the  sickening  victim  eyed 

The  life-blood  ebb  in  crimson  tide 

Down  his  clogged  beard  and  shaggy  limb. 

Till  darkness  glazed  his  eyeballs  dim. 

The  grisly  priest,  with  murmuring  prayer, 

A  slender  crosslet  framed  with  care, 

A  cubit's  length  in  measure  due  ; 

The  shaft  and  limbs  were  rods  of  yew. 

Whose  parents  in  Inch-Cailliach  wave 

Their  shadows  o'er  Clan  Alpine's  grave." 

Lifting  up  this  fragment  of  the  tree  from  the  grave  of  the  patriarch  of 
the  Clan,^  the  old  priest  sounded  anathemas  against  those  who  should 
be  untrue  to  their  covenant  obligations  as  clansmen,  when  they  recog- 
nized this  symbol  of  their  common  brotherhood. 

"  Burst  with  loud  roar  their  answer  hoarse, 
*  Woe  to  the  traitor,  woe  ! ' 
Ben-an's  gray  scalps  the  accents  knew. 
The  joyous  wolf  from  covert  drew. 
The  exulting  eagle  screamed  afar, — 
^         They  knew  the  voice  of  Alpine's  war. 
"  The  shout  was  hushed  on  lake  and  fell. 
The  monk  resumed  his  muttered  spell : 
Dismal  and  low  its  accents  came, 
The  while  he  scathed  the  cross  with  flame. 
1  See  reference  (in  note  at  page  268  f.  supra)  to  the  custom  in  Sumatra,  of  taking 
an  oath  over  the  "  grave  of  the  original  patriarch  of  the  Passumah*" 


320  APPENDIX, 


The  crosslet's  points  of  sparkling  wood 
He  quenched  among  the  bubbling  blood. 
And,  as  again  the  sign  he  reared. 
Hollow  and  hoarse  his  voice  was  heard  : 
*  When  flits  this  cross  from  man  to  man, 
Vich-Alpine's  summons  to  his  clan. 
Burst  be  the  ear  that  fails  to  heed ! 
Palsied  the  foot  that  shuns  to  speed  ! 


Then  Roderick  with  impatient  look 

From  Brian's  hand  the  symbol  took  : 

'  Speed,  Malise,  speed  ! '  he  said,  and  gave 

The  crosslet  to  his  henchman  brave. 

*  The  muster-place  be  Lanrick  mead — 

Instant  the  time — ^Speed,  Malise,  speed  ! '" l 

"At  sight  of  the  Fiery  Cross,"  says  Scott,  "every  man,  from  sixteen 
years  old  to  sixty,  capable  of  bearing  arms,  was  obliged  instantly  to 
repair,  in  his  best  arms  and  accoutrements,  to  the  place  of  rendezvous. 
.  .  .  During  the  civil  war  of  1 745-6,  the  Fiery  Cross  often  made  its 
circuit ;  and  upon  one  occasion  it  passed  through  the  whole  district  of 
Breadalbane,  a  tract  of  thirty-two  miles,  in  three  hours."  2 

BLOOD-DRINKING. 

Another  item  of  evidence  that  the  blood-covenant  in  its  primitive 
form  was  a  well-known  rite  in  primitive  Europe,  is  a  citation  by  Athen- 
seus  from  Poseidonios  to  this  effect :  "  Concerning  the  Germans,  Poseido- 
nios  says,  that  they,  embracing  each  other  in  their  banquets,  open  the 
veins  upon  their  foreheads,'  and  mixing  the  flowing  blood  with  their  drink, 
they  present  it  to  each  other;  esteeming  it  the  farthest  attainment  of  friend- 
ship, to  taste  each  other's  blood."  *  As  Poseidonios  was  earlier  than  our 
Christian  era,  this  testimony  shows  that  the  custom  with  our  ancestors  was 
in  no  sense  an  outgrowth,  nor  yet  a  perversion,  of  Christian  practices. 

"^Lady  0/  the  Lake,  Canto  III.  ^Ibid.,  note. 

»  Sec  pages  13, 86  f.,  supra.  *  Athenaeus's  Deipnosophistce ,  II.,  24  (45). 


APPENDIX.  321 

In  Moore's  Lalla  Rookh,  the  young  maiden,  Zelica,  being  induced 

by  Mokanna,  the  Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan,  to  accompany  him  to 

the  charnel-house,  pledged  herself  to  him,  body  and  soul,  in  a  draught 

of  blood. 

"  There  in  that  awful  place,  when  each  had  quaflfed 

And  pledged  in  silence  such  a  fearful  draught. 

Such — oh !  the  look  and  taste  of  that  red  bowl 

Will  haunt  her  till  she  dies — he  bound  her  soul 

By  a  dark  oath,  in  hell's  own  language  fram'd." 

It  was  after  this,  that  he  reminded  her  of  the  binding  force  of  this  blood- 
covenant  : 

"  That  cup — thou  shudderest,  I>ady — was  it  sweet  ? 

That  cup  we  pledg'd,  the  charnel's  choicest  wine. 
Hath  bound  thee — aye — ^body  and  soul  all  mine." 

And  her  bitter  memory  of  that  covenant-scene,  in  the  presence  of  the 
"bloodless  ghosts,"  was: 

"  The  dead  stood  round  us,  while  I  spoke  that  vow. 
Their  blue  lips  echo'd  it.     I  hear  them  now  ! 
Their  eyes  glared  on  me,  while  I  pledged  that  bowl, 
*Twas  burning  blood — I  feel  it  in  my  soul  1  " 

Although  this  is  Western  poetry,  it  had  a  basis  of  careful  Oriental  study 
in  its  preparation  ;  and  the  blood-draught  of  the  covenant  is  known  to 
Persian  story  and  tradition. 

One  of  the  indications  of  the  world-wide  belief  in  the  custom  of 
covenanting,  and  again  of  life  seeking,  by  blood-drinking,  is  the  fact 
that  both  Jews  and  Christians  have  often  been  falsely  charged  with 
drinking  the  blood  of  little  children,  at  their  religious  feasts.  This  was 
one  of  the  frequent  accusations  against  the  early  Christians  (See  Justin 
Martyr's  Apol.y  I.,  26 ;  Tertullian's  ApoL^  VIII.,  IX.)  And  it  has  been 
repeated  against  the  Jews,  from  the  days  of  Apion  down  to  the  present 
decade.  Such  a  baseless  charge  could  not  have  gained  credence,  but 
for  the  traditional  understanding  that  men  were  wont  to  pledge  each 
other  to  a  close  covenant  by  mutual  blood-drinking. 


322  APPENDIX. 


COVENANT-  CUTTING. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  when  the  Lord  enters  into  covenant  with 
Abraham  by  means  of  a  prescribed  sacrifice  (Gen.  15  :  7-18),  it  is  said 
that  the  Lord  "  cut  a  covenant  with  Abram  "  ;  but  when  the  Lord  calls 
on  Abraham  to  cut  a  covenant  of  blood-friendship,  by  the  rite  of  cir- 
cumcision (Gen.  17:  1-12),  the  Lord  says,  for  himself,  "I  will  make 
[or  I  will  fix]  my  covenant  between  me  and  thee."  In  the  one  case, 
the  Hebrew  word  is  karath  (r\13)  "to  cut" ;  in  the  other,  it  is  nathan 
yjnj  )  "  to  give,"  or  "  to  fix."  This  change  goes  to  show  that  the  idea  of 
cutting  a  covenant  includes  the  act  of  a  cutting — of  a  cutting  of  one's 
person  or  the  cutting  of  the  substitute  victim — as  an  integral  part  of  the 
covenant  itself;  that  a  covenant  may  be  made,  or  fixed,  without  a  cutting, 
but  that  the  term  "  cutting  "  involves  the  act  of  cutting. 

Thus,  again,  in  Jeremiah  34:  18,  there  is  a  two-fold  reference  to 
covenant-cutting ;  where  the  Lord  reproaches  his  people  for  their  faith- 
lessness to  their  covenant.  "And  I  will  give  [to  destruction]  the  men 
that  have  transgressed  my  covenant,  which  have  not  performed  the 
words  of  the  covenant  which  they  made  [literally,  *  cut ']  before  me  [in 
my  sight]  when  they  cut  the  calf  in  twain,  and  passed  between  the  parts 
thereof."  In  this  instance,  there  is  in  the  Hebrew,  a  pun,  as  it  were,  to 
give  added  force  to  the  accusation  and  reproach.  The  same  word  ^abhar 
p5;?)  means  both  "  to  transgress  "  and  "to  pass  over"  [or,  "between"], 
so  that,  freely  rendered,  the  charge  here  made,  is,  that  they  went  through 
the  covenant  when  they  had  gone  through  the  calf;  which  is  another  way 
of  saying  that  they  cut  their  duty  when  they  claimed  to  cut  a  covenant. 

The  correspondence  of  cutting  the  victim  of  sacrifice,  and  of  cutting 
into  the  flesh  of  the  covenanting  parties,  in  the  ceremony  of  making 
blood-brotherhood,  or  blood- friendship,  is  well-illustrated  in  the  inter- 
changing of  these  methods  in  the  primitive  customs  of  Borneo.^  The 
pig  is  the  more  commonly  prized  victim  of  sacrifice  in  Borneo.  It 
1  St.  John's  Life  in  Far  East,  Comp.  I.,  38,  46,  56,  74-76,  115,  117,  185, 


APPENDIX.  323 

seems,  indeed,  to  be  there  valued  only  next  after  a  human  victim.  In 
some  cases,  blood-brotherhood  is  made,  in  Borneo,  by  "  imbibing  each 
other's  blood."  In  other  cases,  "  a  pig  is  brought  and  placed  between 
the  two  [friends]  who  are  to  be  joined  in  brotherhood.  A  chief  ad- 
dresses an  invocation  to  the  gods,  and  marks  with  a  lighted  brand  ^  the 
pig's  shoulder.  The  beast  is  then  killed,  and  after  an  exchange  of 
jackets,^  a  sword  is  thrust  into  the  wound,  and  the  two  [friends]  are 
marked  with  the  blood  of  the  pig."  On  one  occasion,  when  two  hos- 
tile tribes  came  together  to  make  a  formal  covenant  of  brotherhood, 
"the  ceremony  of  killing  a  pig  for  each  tribe  "  was  the  central  feature 
of  the  compact ;  as  in  the  case  of  two  Kayans  becoming  one  by  inter- 
changing their  own  blood,  actually  or  by  a  substitute  pig.  And  it  is 
said  of  the  tribal  act  of  cutting  the  covenant  by  cutting  the  pig,  that 
"  it  is  thought  more  fortunate  if  the  animal  be  severed  in  two  by 
one  stroke  of  the  parang  (half  sword,  half  chopper)."  In  another 
instance,  where  two  tribes  entered  into  a  covenant,  "a  pig  was  placed 
between  the  representatives  of  [the]  two  tribes ;  who,  after  calling 
down  the  vengeance  of  the  spirits  on  those  who  broke  the  treaty, 
plunged  their  spears  into  the  animal  [*  cutting  a  covenant '  in  that 
way],  and  then  exchanged  weapons.^  Drawing  their  krises,  they  each 
bit  the  blade  of  the  other  [as  if  *  drinking  the  covenant '],'  and  so  com- 
pleted the  affair,"  So,  again,  "  if  two  men  who  have  been  at  deadly 
feud,  meet  in  a  house  [where  the  obligations  of  hospitality  restrain 
them],  they  refuse  to  cast  their  eyes  upon  each  other  till  a  fowl  has 
been  killed,  and  the  blood  sprinkled  over  them." 

In  every  case,  it  is  the  blood  that  seals  the  mutual  covenant,  and  the 
"cutting  of  the  covenant"  is  that  cutting  which  secures  the  covenant- 
ing, or  the  inter-uniting,  blood.  The  cutting  may  be  in  the  flesh  of  the 
covenanting  parties ;  or,  again  it  may  be  in  the  flesh  of  the  substitute 
victim  which  is  sacrificed. 

1 A  trace  of  the  burnt  branch  of  the  covenant-tree. 
'  See  page  270,  supra.  s  See  pages  9,  154,  supra. 


324  APPENDIX. 


BLOOD-BATHING. 

In  the  Midrash  Rabboth  [Shemoth,  Beth,  92,  col.  2.)  there  is  this 
comment  by  the  Rabbis,  on  Exodus  2  :  23  :  "  *  And  the  king  of  Egypt 
died.'  He  was  smitten  with  leprosy.  ...  *  And  the  children  of 
Israel  sighed.'  Wherefore  did  they  sigh  ?  Because  the  magicians  of 
Egypt  said :  '  There  is  no  healing  for  thee  save  by  the  slaying  of  the 
little  children  of  the  Israelites.  Slay  them  in  the  morning,  and  slay  them 
in  the  evening ;  and  bathe  in  their  blood  twice  a  day.'  As  soon  as  the 
children  of  Israel  heard  the  cruel  decree,  they  poured  forth  great  sigh- 
ings  and  wailings."  That  comment  gives  a  new  point,  in  the  rabbinical 
mind,  to  the  first  plague,  whereby  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  in  which 
royalty  bathed  (Exod.  2  :  5),  were  turned  into  blood,  because  of  the 
bondage  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

A  survival  of  the  blood-baths  of  ancient  Egypt,  as  a  means  of  re-vivi- 
fying the  death-smitten,  would  seem  to  exist  in  the  medical  practices  of 
the  Bechuana  tribes  of  Africa ;  as  so  many  of  the  customs  of  ancient 
Egypt  still  survive  among  the  African  races  (See  page  15,  supra).  Thus, 
Moffat  reports  [Missionary  Labours,  p.  277)  a  method  employed  by 
native  physicians,  of  killing  a  goat  "  over  the  sick  person,  allowing  the 
blood  to  run  down  the  body." 

BLOOD-RANSOMING. 

Among  other  Bible  indications  that  the  custom  of  balancing,  or 
canceling,  a  blood  account  by  a  payment  in  money,  was  well  known  in 
ancient  Palestine,  appears  the  record  of  David's  conference  with  the 
Gibeonites,  concerning  their  claim  for  blood  against  the  house  of  Saul, 
in  2  Samuel  21 :  1-9.  When  it  was  found  that  the  famine  in  Israel 
was  because  of  Saul's  having  taken  blood — or  life — unjustly  from  the 
Gibeonites,  David  essayed  to  balance  that  unsettled  account.  "And  the 
Gibeonites  said  unto  him,  It  is  no  matter  of  silver  or  gold  between  us 
and  Saul,  or  his  house ;  neither  is  it  for  us  to  put  any  man  to  death  in 


APPENDIX.  325 

Israel ;  "  which  was  equivalent  to  saying  :  "  Money  for  blood  we  will 
not  take.  Blood  for  blood  we  have  no  power  to  obtain."  Then  said 
David,  "What  ye  shall  say,  that  will  I  do  for  you."  At  this,  the 
Gibeonites  demanded,  and  obtained,  the  lives  of  the  seven  sons  of  Saul. 
The  blood  account  must  be  balanced.  In  this  case,  as  by  the  Mosaic 
law,  it  could  only  be  by  life  for  life. 

In  some  parts  of  Arabia,  if  a  Muhammadan  slays  a  pereon  of  another 
religion,  the  relatives  of  the  latter  are  not  allowed  to  insist  on  blood 
for  blood,  but  must  accept  an  equivalent  in  money.  The  claim  for  the 
spilled  blood  is  recognized,  but  a  Muhammadan's  blood  is  too  precious 
for  its  payment.     (See  Wellsted's  Travels  in  Arabiuy  L,  19.) 

It  is  much  the  same  in  the  far  West  as  in  the  far  East,  as  to  this  can- 
celing of  a  blood-debt  by  blood  or  by  other  gifts.  Parkman  [Jesuits 
in  No.  Am.,  pp.  Ixi.-lxiii. ;  354-360)  says  of  the  custom  among  the 
Hurons  and  the  Iroquois,  that  in  case  of  bloodshed  the  chief  effort  of 
all  concerned  was  to  effect  a  settlement  by  contributions  to  the  amount 
of  the  regular  tariff  rates  of  a  human  life. 

Another  indication  that  the  mission  of  the  goel  was  to  cancel  the  loss  of 
a  life  rather  than  to  avenge  it,  is  found  in  the  primitive  customs  of  the 
New  World.  "  Even  in  so  rude  a  tribe  as  the  Brazilian  Topanazes,"  the 
Farrer  (citing  Eschwege,  in  Prim.  Alan,  and  Cust.,  p.  164),  "  a  murderer 
of  a  fellow  tribesman  would  be  conducted  by  his  relations  to  those  of  the 
deceased,  to  be  by  them  forthwith  strangled  and  buried  [with  his  forfeited 
blood  in  him],  in  satisfaction  of  their  rights ;  the  two  families  eating 
together  for  several  days  after  the  event  as  though  for  the  purpose  of 
[or,  as  in  evidence  of]  reconciliation," — not  of  satisfied  revenge. 

Yet  more  convincing  than  all,  in  the  line  of  such  proofs  that  it  is  resti- 
tution, and  not  vengeance,  that  is  sought  by  the  pursuit  of  blood  in  the 
mission  of  the  goel,  is  the  fact  that  in  various  countries,  when  a  man  has 
died  a  natural  death,  it  is  the  custom  to  seek  blood,  or  life,  from  those 
immediately  about  him  ;  as  if  to  restore,  or  to  equalize,  the  family  loss. 
Thus,  in  New  South  Wales,  "  when  any  one  of  the  tribe  dies  a  natural 

28 


326  APPENDIX. 

death,  it  is  usual  to  avenge  [not  to  avenge,  but  to  meet]  the  loss  of  the 
deceased  by  taking  blood  from  one  or  other  of  his  friends,"  and  it  is  said 
that  death  sometimes  results  from  this  endeavor  (Angas's  Sav.  Life,  II., 
227).  In  this  fact,  there  is  added  light  on  the  almost  universal  custom 
of  blood-giving  to,  or  over,  the  dead.  (See,  e.  g.  Ellis's  Land  of  Fetish, 
pp.  59,  64;  Stanley's  The  Congo,  II.,  180-182;  Angas's  Sav.  Life,  I., 
98,  331 ;  II.,  84,  89  f, ;  Ellis's  Polyn.  Res.,  I.,  527-529;  Dodge's  Our 
Wild  Indians,  p.  172  f. ;  First  An.  Rep.  of  Bureau  of  Ethn.,  pp.  109, 
112,  159  f.,  164,  183,  190.) 

THE  COVENANT-REMINDER. 

It  has  already  been  shown,  that  the  blood-stained  record  of  the  cove- 
nant of  blood,  shielded  in  a  leathern  case,  is  proudly  worn  as  an 
armlet  or  as  a  necklace,  by  the  Oriental  who  has  been  fortunate  enough 
to  become  a  sharer  in  such  a  covenant ;  and  that  there  is  reason  for 
believing  that  there  are  traces  of  this  custom,  in  the  necklaces,  the 
armlets,  the  rings,  and  the  frontlets,  which  have  been  worn  as  the 
tokens  of  a  sacred  covenant,  in  well-nigh  all  lands,  from  the  earliest 
days  of  Chaldea  and  Egypt  down  to  the  present  time.  There  is  a  con- 
firmation of  this  idea  in  the  primitive  customs  of  the  North  American 
Indians,  which  ought  not  to  be  overlooked. 

The  distinctive  method  by  which  these  Indians  were  accustomed  to 
confii-m  and  signalize  a  formal  covenant,  or  a  treaty,  was  the  exchange 
of  belts  of  wampum ;  and  that  these  wampum  belts  were  not  merely 
conventional  gifts,  but  were  actual  records,  tokens,  and  reminders,  of 
the  covenant  itself,  there  is  abundant  evidence.  In  a  careful  paper  on  the 
"  Art  in  Shell  of  the  Ancient  Americans,"  in  one  of  the  reports  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  the  writer  ^  says  : 
"  One  of  the  most  remarkable  customs  practiced  by  the  Americans  is 
found  in  the  mnemonic  use  of  wampum.  ...  It  does  not  seem 
probable  .  .  .  that  a  custom  so  unique  and  so  widespread  could 
1 W.  H.  Holmes,  in  Second  Annual  Report  0/ Bureau  of  Ethnol.,  pp.  240-254. 


APPENDIX.  327 

have  gi-own  up  within  the  historic  period,  nor  is  it  probable  that  a 
practice  foreign  to  the  genius  of  tradition-loving  races  could  have  be- 
come so  well  established  and  so  dear  to  their  hearts  in  a  few  genera- 
tions. .  .  .  The  mnemonic  use  of  wampum  is  one,  which,  I 
imagine,  might  readily  develop  from  the  practice  of  gift  giving  and  the 
exchange  of  tokens  of  friendship,  such  mementoes  being  preser\'ed  for 
future  reference  as  reminders  of  promises  of  assistance  or  protection. 
.  .  .  The  wampum  records  of  the  Iroquois  [and  the  same  is  found 
to  be  true  in  many  other  tribes]  were  generally  in  the  form  of  belts  [as 
an  encircling  and  binding  token  of  a  covenant],  the  beads  being  strung 
or  woven  into  patterns  formed  by  the  use  of  different  colors."  Illustra- 
tions, by  the  score,  of  this  mnemonic  use  of  the  covenant-confirming 
belts,  or  "  necklaces,"  ^  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  are  given,  or  are 
referred  to,  in  this  interesting  article. 

In  the  narrative  of  a  council  held  by  the  "  Five  Nations,"  at  Onon- 
daga, nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  a  Seneca  sachem  is  said  to  have 
presented  a  proposed  treaty  between  the  Wagunhas  and  the  Senecas, 
with  the  words  :  "  We  come  to  join  the  two  bodies  into  one  "  ;  and  he 
evidenced  his  good  faith  in  this  endeavor,  by  the  presentation  of  the 
mnemonic  belts  of  wampum.  "  The  belts  were  accepted  by  the  Five 
Nations,  and  their  acceptance  was  a  ratification  of  the  treaty."  *  Lafi- 
tau,  writing  of  the  Canadian  Indians,  in  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  says :  "  They  do  not  believe  that  any  transaction  can  be  con- 
cluded without  these  belts ;  "  and  he  mentions,  that  according  to  Indian 
custom  these  belts  were  to  be  exchanged  in  covenant  making ;  "  that  is 
to  say,  for  one  belt  [received]  one  must  give  another  [belt]."  '  And  a 
historian  of  the  Moravian  Missions  says  :  "  Everything  of  moment  trans- i 
acted  at  solemn  councils,  either  between  the  Indians  themselves,  or  with 
Europeans,  is  ratified  and  made  valid  by  strings  and  belts  of  wam- 

IW.  H.  Holmes,  in  Second  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  0/  Ethnol.,  p.  243. 
»  Events  in  Indian  History,  p.  143  ;  cited  Ibid.,  p.  242  f. 
^Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Amerig.,  torn.  II,,  pp.  502-507 ;  cited  3id.,  p.  243  flF. 


328  APPENDIX. 

pum."  ^  "The  strings,"  according  to  Lafitau,  "are  used  for  affairs  of 
little  consequence,  or  as  a  preparation  for  other  more  considerable  pres- 
ents "  ;  but  the  binding  "belts  "  were  as  the  bond  of  the  covenant  itself. 

These  covenant  belts  often  bore,  interwoven  with  different  colored 
wampum  beads,  symbolic  figures  ;  such  as  two  hands  clasped  in  friend- 
ship, or  two  figures  with  hands  joined.  As  the  belts  commonly  signal- 
I  ized  tribal  covenants,  they  were  not  worn  by  a  single  individual ;  but 
were  sacredly  guarded  in  some  tribal  depository ;  yet  their  form  and 
their  designation  indicate  the  origin  of  their  idea. 

There  is  still  preserved,  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania, 
Ine  wampum  belt  which  is  supposed  to  have  sealed  the  treaty  of  peace 
and  friendship  between  William  Penn  and  the  Indians.  It  contains 
two  figures,  wrought  in  dark  colored  beads,  representing  "  an  Indian 
grasping  with  the  hand  of  friendship  the  hand  of  a  man  evidently 
intended  to  be  represented  in  the  European  costume,  wearing  a  hat."  ^ 

Still  more  explicit  in  its  symbolism,  is  the  royal  belt  of  the  primitive 
kings  of  Tahiti.  Throughout  Polynesia,  red  feathers,  which  had  been 
inclosed  in  a  hollow  image  of  a  god,  were  considered  not  only  as  em- 
blematic of  the  deities,  but  as  actually  representing  them  in  their  person- 
ality (Ellis's  Polyn.  Pes.,  I.,  79,  211,  314,  316;  II.,  204;  Tour  thro* 
Hawaii,  p.  I2l).  "  The  inauguration  ceremony  [of  the  Tahitian  king], 
answering  to  coronation  among  other  nations,  consisted  in  girding  the 
king  with  the  maro  uro,  or  sacred  girdle  of  red  feathers;  which  not 
only  raised  him  to  the  highest  earthly  station,  but  identified  him  with 
their  gods  [as  by  oneness  of  blood].  The  maro,  or  girdle,  was  made 
with  the  beaten  fibres  of  the  ava;  with  these  a  number  of  ura,  red 
feathers,  taken  from  the  images  of  their  deities  [where  they  had,  seem- 
ingly, represented  the  blood,  or  the  life,  of  the  image],  were  interwoven; 
,     .     .     the  feathers  [as  the  blood]  being  supposed  to  retain  all  the 

1  Loskiel's  Missions  of  the  United  Brethren,  Trans,  by  La  Trobe,  Bk.  I.,  p. 
26 ;  cited  in  Ibid,,  p.  245  f. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  253  f. 


APPENDIX.  329 

dreadful  attributes  of  vengeance  which  the  idols  possessed,  and  with 
which  it  was  designed  to  endow  the  king."  In  lieu  of  the  king's  own 
blood,  in  this  symbolic  ceremony  of  inter-umon,  a  human  victim  was 
sacrificed,  for  the  "  fastening  on  of  the  sacred  maro."  "  Sometimes  a 
human  victim  was  offered  for  every  fresh  piece  added  to  the  girdle  [blood 
for  blood,  between  the  king  and  the  god];  .  .  .  and  the  girdle 
was  considered  as  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  those  victims."  The  chief 
priest  of  the  god  Oro  formally  invested  the  king  with  this  "  sacred  girdle, 
which,  the  [blood-representmg]  feathers  from  the  idol  being  interwoven 
m  it,  was  supposed  to  impart  to  the  king  a  power  equal  to  that  possessed 
by  Oro."  After  this,  the  king  was  supposed  to  be  a  sharer  of  the  divine 
nature  of  Oro,  with  whom  he  had  entered  into  a  covenant  of  blood- 
union  (Ellis's  Polyn.  Res.,  II.,  354-360). 

Thus  it  seems  that  a  band,  as  a  bond,  of  a  sacred  covenant  is  treasured 
reverently  in  the  New  World ;  as  a  similar  token,  of  one  kind,  or  an- 
other, was  treasured,  for  the  same  reason,  in  the  Old  World.  Yet,  in 
the  face  of  such  facts  as  these,  one  of  the  notable  rationalistic  theological 
writers  on  Old  Testament  manners  and  customs,  in  the  latest  edition  of 
the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  coolly  ascribes  the  idea  of  the  Jewish  phy- 
lacteries to  the  superstitious  idea  of  a  pagan  "  amulet."  He  might  in- 
deed, with  good  reason,  have  ascribed  the  idea  of  the  pagan  amulet  itself 
to  a  perversion  of  that  common  primitive  idea  of  the  binding  bond  of  a 
sacred  covenant,  which  shows  itself  in  the  blood-friendship  record  of 
Syria,  in  the  red  covenant-cord  of  China  and  India,  in  the  divine-human 
covenant  token  of  ancient  Egypt,  in  the  red-feather  belt  of  divine-royal 
union,  in  the  Pacific  Islands,  in  the  wampum  belt  of  America,  and  in 
the  evolved  wedding-covenant  ring,  or  amulet,  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
civilized  world.  But  that  would  hardly  have  been  in  accordance  with 
the  fashionable  method  of  the  modem  rationalistic  theologian ;  which  is, 
to  fix  on  some  later  heathenish  perversion  of  a  primitive  sacred  rite,  and 
then  to  ascribe  the  origin  of  all  the  normal  uses  of  that  primitive  rite,  to 

its  own  later  perversions. 

28* 


330  APPENDIX. 

Yet  another  indication  that  the  binding  circlet  of  the  covenant-token 
stands,  among  primitive  peoples,  as  also  among  cultivated  ones,  as  the 
representative,  or  proof,  of  this  very  covenant  itself,  is  found  in  a  method 
of  divorce  prevailing  among  the  Balau  Dayaks,  of  Borneo.  It  has 
already  been  shown  (page  73,  supra)  that  a  ring  of  blood  is  a  binding 
symbol  in  the  marriage  covenant  in  some  parts  of  Borneo.  It  seems,  also, 
that  when  a  divorce  has  been  agreed  on  by  a  Balau  couple, "  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  offended  husband  to  send  a  ring  to  his  wife,  before  the 
marriage  can  be  considered  as  finally  dissolved ;  without  which,  should 
they  marry  again,  they  would  be  liable  to  be  punished  for  infidelity."  ^ 
This  practice  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  the  old  custom  already 
referred  to  (page  73  f.),  of  the  bride  giving  to  the  bridegroom  a  blood- 
representing  ring  in  the  marriage  cup.  Until  that  symboHc  ring  is  re- 
turned to  her  by  the  bridegroom,  it  remains  as  the  proof  of  her  cove- 
nant with  him. 

This  connection  of  the  encircling  ring  with  the  heart's  blood,  is  of  very 
ancient  origin,  and  of  general,  if  not  of  universal,  application.  Wilkinson 
{Anc.  Egypt.i  III.,  420)  cites  Macrobius  as  saying,  that  "  those  Egyptian 
priests  who  were  called  prophets,  when  engaged  in  the  temple  near  the 
altars  of  the  gods,  moistened  [anointed]  the  ring-finger  of  the  left  hand 
(which  was  that  next  to  the  smallest)  with  various  sweet  ointments,  in 
the  belief  that  a  certain  nerve  communicated  with  it  from  the  heart." 
He  also  says,  that  among  the  Egyptian  women,  many  finger  rings  were 
worn,  and  that  "  the  left  was  considered  the  hand  peculiarly  privileged 
to  wear  these  ornaments;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  its  third  finger  [next 
to  the  little  finger]  was  considered  by  them,  as  by  us,  par  excellence  the 
ring  finger;  though  there  is  no  evidence  [to  his  knowledge]  of  its  having 
been  so  honored  at  the  marriage  ceremony."  Birch  adds  [Ibid.,  II., 
340),  that  "  it  is  very  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the  ring  worn  for 
mere  ornament,  and  the  signet  [standing  for  the  wearer's  veiy  life]  em- 
ployed to  seal  [and  to  sign]  epistles  and  other  things."  The  evidence 
1  St  John's  Li/e  in  the  Far  East,  I.,  67, 


APPENDIX.  331 

is,  in  fact,  ample,  that  the  ring,  in  ancient  Egypt,  as  elsewhere,  was  not 
a  mere  ornament,  nor  yet  a  superstitious  amulet,  but  represented  one's 
heart,  or  one's  life,  as  a  symbol  and  pledge  of  personal  fidelity. 

In  South  Australia,  the  rite  of  circumcision  is  one  of  the  steps  by 
,  which  a  lad  enters  into  the  sphere  of  manhood.  This  involves  his  cove- 
nanting with  his  new  god-father,  and  with  his  new  fellows  in  the  sphere 
of  his  entering.  In  this  ceremony,  the  very  nng  of  flesh  itself  is  placed 
**  on  the  third  finger  of  the  boy's  left  hand  "  (Angas's  Sav.  Life,  I.,  99). 
What  stronger  proof  than  this  could  be  given,  that  the  finger-ring  is  a 
vestige  of  the  primitive  blood-covenant  token  ? 

An  instance  of  the  use  of  a  large  ring,  or  bracelet,  encircling  the  two 
hands  of  persons  joining  in  the  marriage  covenant,  is  reported  to  me  from 
the  North  of  Ireland,  in  the  present  century.  It  was  in  the  county  Don- 
egal. The  Roman  Catholic  priest  was  a  French  exile.  In  marrying  the 
people  of  the  poorer  class,  who  could  not  afford  to  purchase  a  ring,  he 
"  would  take  the  large  ring  from  his  old-fashioned  double-cased  watch, 
and  hold  it  on  the  hands,  or  the  thumbs,  of  the  contracting  parties, 
while  he  blessed  their  union." 

Yet  another  illustration  of  the  universal  symbolism  of  the  ring,  as  a 
token  of  sacred  covenant,  is  its  common  use  as  a  pledge  of  friendship, 
even  unto  death.  The  ring  given  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  the  unfortunate 
Earl  of  Essex,  is  an  instance  in  point.  Had  that  covenant-token  reached 
her,  her  covenant  promises  would  have  been  redeemed. 

There  is  an  old  Scottish  ballad,  "  Hynd  Horn," — ^perhaps  having  a 
common  origin  with  the  Bohemian  lay  on  which  Scott  based  The 
Noble  Moringer,^ — which  brings  out  the  idea  of  a  covenant-ring  having 
the  power  to  indicate  to  its  wearer  the  fidelity  of  its  giver ;  correspond- 
ing with  the  popular  belief  to  that  effect,  suggested  by  Bacon.'  Hynd 
Horn  has  won  the  heart  of  the  king's  daughter,  and  the  king  sends 
him  over  the  sea,  as  a  means  of  breaking  up  the  match.  As  he  sets 
out  Hynd  Horn  carries  with  him  a  symbol  of  his  lady-love's  troth. 
1  See  page  73,  supra.  8  Sec  page  75,  supra. 


332  APPENDIX. 

"  O  his  love  gave  him  a  gay  gold  ring. 
With  a  hey  lillelu,  and  a  how  lo  Ian  ; 
With  three  shining  diamonds  set  therein. 
And  the  birk  and  the  broom  blooms  bonnie. 
"  As  long  as  these  diamonds  keep  their  hue. 
With  a  hey  lillelu,  and  a  how  lo  Ian, 
Ye'U  know  that  I'm  a  lover  true. 
And  the  birk  and  the  broom  blooms  bonnie. 
"  But  when  your  ring  turns  pale  and  wan. 
With  a  hey  lillelu,  and  a  how  lo  Ian, 
Then  I'm  in  love  with  another  man. 
And  the  birk  and  the  broom  blooms  bonnie."  ^ 

Seven  years  went  by,  and  then  the  ring-gems  grew  "  pale  and  wan," 
Hynd  Horn  hastened  back,  entered  the  wedding-halJ  disguised  as  a 
beggar,  sent  the  covenant-ring  to  the  bride  in  a  glass  of  wine ;  and  the 
sequel  was  the  same  as  in  The  Noble  Moringer. 

At  a  Brahman  wedding,  in  India,  described  by  Miss  H.  G.  Brittan  (in 
"The  Missionary  Link,"  for  October,  1864;  cited  in  Women  of  the 
Orient,  pp.  1 76-179)  a  silver  dish,  filled  with  water,  (probably  with  water 
colored  with  saffron,  or  with  tumeric,  according  to  the  common  custom  in 
India,)  "  also  containing  a  very  handsome  ruby  ring,  and  a  thin  iron  brace- 
let," was  set  before  the  father  of  the  bride,  during  the  mairiage  ceremony. 
At  the  covenanting  of  the  young  couple,  « the  ring  was  given  to  the 
groom;  the  bracelet  to  the  bride;  then  some  of  the  [blood-colored?] 
water  was  sprinkled  on  them  (See  page  194,  supra),  and  some  flowers 
[were]  thrown  at  them."  Here  seem  to  be  combined,  the  symbolisms 
of  the  ring,  the  bracelet,  and  the  blood,  m  a  sacred  covenanting. 

HINTS   OF   BLOOD-UNION. 

From  the  very  fact  that  so  little  attention  has  been  given  to  the  primi- 
tive rite  of  blood-covenanting,  in  the  studies  of  modem  scholars,  there 
is  reason  for  supposing  that  the  rite  itself  has  very  often  been  unnoticed 
1  AJlingham's  Ballad  Book,  p.  6  f. 


APPENDIX.  333 

by  travelers  and  missionaries  in  regions  where  it  was  practiced  almost 
under  their  eyes.  Indeed,  there  is  proof  of  this  to  be  obtained,  by 
comparing  the  facts  recorded  in  this  volume  with  the  writings  of  visitors 
to  the  lands  here  reported  from.  Hence,  it  is  fair  to  infer,  that  more  or 
less  of  the  brotherhoods  or  friendships  noted  among  primitive  peoples, 
without  any  description  of  the  methods  of  their  consummating,  are 
either  dii-ectly  based  on  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting,  or  aie  outgrowths 
and  variations  of  that  rite  ;  as,  for  example,  in  Borneo,  blood-tasting  is 
sometimes  deemed  essential  to  the  rite,  and  again  it  is  omitted.  It  may 
be  well,  therefore,  to  look  at  some  of  the  hints  of  blood-union  among 
primitive  peoples,  in  relationships  and  in  customs  where  not  all  the  facts 
and  processes  involved,  are  known  to  us. 

Peculiarly  is  it  true,  that  wherever  we  find  the  idea  of  an  absolute 
merging  of  two  natures  into  one,  or  of  an  inter-union  or  an  inter-chang- 
ing of  two  personalities  in  loving  relation,  there  is  reason  for  suspecting 
a  connection  with  the  primitive  rite  of  inter-union  through  a  common 
blood  flow.  And  there  are  illustrations  of  this  idea  in  the  Old  World 
and  in  the  New,  all  along  the  ages. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  (page  109,  supra)  that,  in  India,  the 
possibility  of  an  inter-union  of  two  natures,  and  of  their  inter-merging 
into  one,  is  recognized  in  the  statement  that  "  the  heart  of  Vishnu  is 
Siva,,  and  the  heart  of  Siv§,  is  Vishnu  " ;  and  it  is  a  well-known  philo- 
sophica;!  fact  that  man  must  have  an  actual  basis  of  human  experience 
for  the  symbolic  language  with  which  he  illustrates  the  nature  and 
characteristics  of  Deity. 

In  the  most  ancient  portion  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  Book  of  the 
Dead,^  there  is  a  description  of  the  inter-union  of  Osiris  and  Ra,  not 
unlike  that  above  quoted  concerning  Sivi  and  Vishnoo.  It  says,  that 
"  Osiris  came  to  Tattu  (Mendes)  and  found  the  soul  of  Ra  there;  each 
embraced  the  other,  and  become  as  one  soul  in  two  souls'" — as  one 
life  in  two  lives ;  or,  as  it  would  be  phrased  concerning  two  human 
1  Todtenbuch,  xvii.,  42,  43  2  Renouf 's  The  Relig.  0/ Arte.  Egypt,  p.  107, 


334  APPENDIX. 

beings  united  in  blood-friendship,  "  one  soul  in  two  bodies  " ;  a  common 
life  in  two  personalities.  Again  it  is  said  in  an  Egyptian  sacred  text, 
"  Ra  is  the  soul  of  Osiris,  and  Osiris  is  the  soul  of  Ra."  ' 

An  exchange  of  names,  as  if  in  exchange  of  personalities,  in  con- 
nection with  a  covenant  of  friendship,  is  a  custom  in  widely  diverse 
countries ;  and  this  custom  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  the  idea 
of  an  inter-union  of  natures  by  an  inter-union  of  blood;  even  if  it 
be  not  actually  an  accompaniment  of  that  rite  in  every  instance.  It 
is  common  in  the  Society  Islands,^  as  an  element  in  the  adoption  of 
a  "  tayo,"  or  a  personal  friend  and  companion  (See  page  56,  supra). 
It  is  to  be  found  in  various  South  Sea  islands,  and  on  the  American 
continent. 

Among  the  Araucanians,  of  South  America,  the  custom  of  making 
brothers,  or  brother-friends,  is  called  Lacu.  It  includes  the  killing  of  a 
lamb  and  dividing  it — "  cutting "  it — between  the  two  covenanting 
parties ;  and  each  party  must  eat  his  half  of  the  lamb — either  by  him- 
self or  by  such  assistance  as  he  chooses  to  call  in.  None  of  it  must  be 
left  uneaten.  Gifts  also  pass  between  the  parties ;  and  the  two  friends 
exchange  names.  "  The  giving  [the  exchanging]  of  a  name  [with  this 
people]  establishes  between  the  namesakes  a  species  of  relationship 
which  is  considered  almost  as  sacred  as  that  of  blood,  and  obliges  them 
to  render  to  each  other  certain  services,  and  that  consideration  which 
naturally  belongs  to  relatives."  ^ 

It  is  related  of  Tolo,  a  chief  of  the  Shastika  Indians,  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  that  when  he  made  a  treaty  with  Col.  McKee,  an  American 
soldier,  in  1852,  for  the  cession  of  certain  tribal  rights,  he  was  anxious 
for  some  ceremony  of  brotherhood,  that  should  give  binding  sacredness 
to  the  mutual  covenant.  After  some  parleying,  he  proposed  the  formnl 
exchange  of  names,  and  this  was  agreed  to.     Thenceforward  he  desired 

IRenouf's  The  Relig.  of  Anc.  Egypt,  p.  107. 

^Miss.  Voyage  to  So.  Pad/.  Ocean,  p.  65. 

'See  E.  R.  Smith's  The  Araucanians,  p  262. 


APPENDIX.  335 

to  be  known  as  "  McKee."  The  American  colonel  was  now  "  Tolo." 
But  after  a  while  the  Indian  found  that,  as  in  too  many  other  instances, 
the  terms  of  the  treaty  were  not  adhered  to  by  the  authorities  making 
it.  Then  he  discarded  his  new  name,  "  McKee,"  and  refused  to  re- 
sume his  former  name,  "  Tolo."  He  would  not  answer  to  either,  and 
to  the  day  of  his  death  he  insisted  that  his  name,  his  identity,  was 
"  lost."  ' — There  is  a  profound  sentiment  underneath  such  a  course,  and 
such  a  custom,  as  that. 

So  fully  is  the  identity  of  one's  name  and  one's  hfe  recognized  by 
primitive  peoples,  that  to  call  on  the  name  of  a  dead  person  is  generally 
supposed  to  summon  the  spirit  of  that  person  to  the  caller's  service. 
Hence,  among  the  American  Indians,  if  one  calls  the  dead  by  name,  he 
must  answer  to  the  dead  man's  goel.  He  must  surrender  his  own  blood, 
or  pay  blood-money,  in  restitution  of  the  life — of  the  dead — taken  by 
him.     [First  An.  Rep.  of  Bureau  of  EthnoL,  p.  200.) 

Even  Herbert  Spencer  sees  the  correspondence  of  the  blood-covenant 
and  the  exchange  of  names.  He  says :  "  By  absorbing  each  other's 
blood,  men  are  supposed  to  establish  actual  community  of  nature. 
Similarly  with  the  ceremony  of  exchanging  names.  .  .  .  This, 
which  is  a  widely-diffused  practice,  arises  from  the  belief  that  the  name 
is  vitally  connected  with  its  owner.  ...  To  exchange  names, 
therefore,  is  to  establish  some  participation  in  one  another's  being."  ^ 
Hence,  as  we  may  suppose,  came  the  well-nigh  universal  Oriental  prac- 
tice of  inter-weaving  the  name  of  one's  Deity  with  one's  name,  as  a 
symbolic  evidence  of  one's  covenant-union  with  the  Deity.  The  blood- 
covenant,  or  the  blood-union,  idea  is  at  the  bottom  of  this. 

Another  custom,  having  a  peculiar  bearing  upon  this  thought  of  a 
new  name,  or  a  new  identity,  through  new  blood,  is  the  rite  of  initia- 
tion into  manhood,  by  the  native  Australians.  During  childhood  the 
Australian  boys  are  under  the  care  of  their  mothers,  and  they  bear 

1  Power's  Tribes  of  California,"  in  Contrib.  to  No.  Am.  Eihnol.,  III.,  247. 
'^Principles  0/  Sociology,  li.,  21. 


'336  APPENDIX. 

names  which  designate  the  place  and  circumstances  of  their  birth.  But 
when  the  time  comes  for  them  to  put  away  childish  things,^  they  are 
subjected  to  a  series  of  severe  and  painful  tests,  to  prove  their  powere 
of  physical  and  mental  endurance,  preparatory  to  their  reception  of  a 
new  name,  as  indicative  of  a  new  life.  A  rite  resembling  circumcision 
is  one  step  in  their  progress.  During  these  ceremonies,  there  is  se- 
lected for  each  lad  a  sponsor  (or  godfather)  who  is  a  representative  of 
that  higher  life  into  which  the  lad  seeks  an  entrance.  One  of  the  latest 
steps  in  the  long  series  of  ceremonies,  is  the  choosing  and  conferring, 
by  the  sponsor,  of  the  lad's  new  name,  which  he  is  to  retain  thence- 
forward during  his  life.  With  a  stone-knife,  the  sponsor  opens  a  vein 
in  his  own  arm,  and  causes  the  lad  to  drink  his  warm-flowing  blood. 
After  this,  the  lad  drops  foi-ward  on  his  hands  and  knees,  and  the 
sponsor's  blood  is  permitted  to  form  a  pool  on  his  back,  and  to  coagu- 
late there.  Then  the  sponsor  cuts,  with  his  stone-knife,  broad  gashes 
in  the  lad's  back,  and  pulls  open  the  gaping  wounds  with  the  fingers. 
The  scars  of  these  gashes  remain  as  permanent  signs  of  the  covenant 
ceremony .2  And  encircling  tokens  of  the  covenant '  are  bound  around 
the  neck,  each  arm,  and  the  waist,  of  the  young  man ;  who  is  now 
reckoned  a  new  creature  *  in  the  life  represented  by  that  godfather,  who 
has  given  him  his  new  name,  and  has  imparted  to  him  of  his  blood.* 
That  the  transfusion  of  blood  in  this  ceremony  is  the  making  of  a 
covenant  between  the  youth  and  his  sponsor,  and  not  the  giving  him 
blood  in  vivification,  is  indicated  in  another  form  of  the  same  rite  of 
manhood-initiation,  as  practised  in  New  South  Wales.  There,  the  youth  is 
seated  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  sponsor;  while  one  of  his  teeth  is  knocked 
out.  The  blood  that  flows  from  the  boy's  lacerated  gum  in  this  ceremony 
is  not  wiped  away,  but  is  suffered  to  run  down  upon  his  breast,  and  thence 
upon  the  head  of  his  sponsor,  whose  name  he  takes.  This  blood,  which 
secures,  by  its  absorption,  a  common  life  between  the  two,  who  have  now 

1 1  Cor.  13  :  II.         2  See  note  at  page  218,  supra.         3  See  pages  65-77,  supra, 
*2  Cor.  5:17;  Eph.  4 :  24  ;  Col.  3  ;  9,  10.    6  Angas's  Savage  Life,  I.,  114-116. 


APPENDIX.  ll^j 

a  common  name,  is  permitted  to  dry  upon  the  head  of  the  man  and  upon 
the  breast  of  the  boy,  and  to  remain  there  untouched  for  several  days. 

In  this  New  South  Wales  ceremonial,  there  is  another  feature,  which 
seems  to  suggest  that  remarkable  connection  of  life  with  a  stone,  which 
>ias  been  already  referred  to  (page  307,  supra) ;  and  yet  again  to  suggest 
the  giving  of  a  new  name  as  the  token  of  a  new  life.  A  white  stone,  or 
a  quartz  crystal,  called  mundie,  is  given  to  each  novitiate  in  manhood, 
at  the  time  he  receives  his  new  name.  This  stone  is  counted  a  gift 
from  deity,  and  is  held  peculiarly  sacred.  A  test  of  the  young  man's 
moral  stamina  is  made  by  the  old  men's  trying,  by  all  sorts  of  persuasion, 
to  induce  him  to  surrender  this  possession,  when  first  he  has  received  it. 
This  accompaniment  of  a  new  name  "  is  worn  concealed  in  the  hair,  tied 
up  in  a  packet,  and  is  never  shown  to  the  women,  who  are  forbidden  to 
look  at  it  under  pain  of  death."  The  youths  receiving  and  retaining 
these  white  stones,  with  their  new  names,  are  termed  "  Kebarrah, 
from  keba,  a  rock,  or  stone."  (Angas's  Savage  Life,  II,,  221.)  That 
the  idea  of  a  sacred  covenant,  a  covenant  of  brotherhood  and  friendship, 
is  underneath  these  ceremonies,  is  indicated  by  the  fact,  that  when  the 
rites  of  Kebarrah  are  celebrated,  even  "  hostile  tribes  meet  in  peace ;  all 
animosity  between  them  being  laid  aside  during  the  performance  of  these 
ceremonies."  "  To  him  that  overcometh,  [saith  the  Spirit,]  .  .  .  I  will 
give  him  a  white  stone,  and  upon  the  stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no 
one  knoweth  but  he  that  receiveth  it"  (Rev.  2 :  17).  The  Rabbis  recom- 
mend the  giving  secretly  of  a  new  name,  as  a  means  of  new  life,  to  him 
who  is  in  danger  of  dying.     (See  Seph.  Hakhkhay.,  p.  37  f.  and  note.) 

Again,  in  a  form  of  marriage  ceremony  in  Tahiti,  there  is  a  hint  of 
this  universal  idea  of  inter-union  by  blood.  An  observer  of  this  cere- 
mony, in  describing  it  says :  "  The  female  relatives  cut  their  faces 
and  brows  *  with  the  instrument  set  with  shark's  teeth,^  received  the 
flowing  blood  on  a  piece  of  native  cloth,  and  deposited  the  cloth, 

'  See  references  to  drawing  blood  from  the  forehead,  at  page  86  flf.,  supra. 

}  See  pages  85-88,  supra. 

29 


338  APPENDIX. 

sprinkled  with  the  mingled  blood  of  the  mothers  of  the  married  pair,  it 
the  feet  of  the  bride.  By  the  latter  parts  of  the  ceremony,  any  inferiori'^v 
of  rank  that  might  have  existed  was  removed,  and  they  were  [now] 
considered  as  equal.  The  two  families,  also,  to  which  they  respectivel) 
belonged,  were  ever  afterwards  regarded  as  one  [through  this  new  blood 
union]."  ^  Had  these  mothers  mingled  and  interchanged  their  own 
blood  before  the  births  of  their  children,  the  children — as  children  of 
a  common  blood — would  have  been  debarred  from  marriage ;  but  now 
that  the  two  children  were  covenanting  to  be  one,  their  mothers  might 
interchange  their  blood,  that  the  young  couple  might  have  an  absolute 
equality  of  family  nature. 

There  are  frequent  references  by  travelers  to  the  rite  of  brotherhood, 
or  of  close  friendship,  in  one  part  of  the  world  or  another,  with  or  with- 
out a  description  of  its  methods.  Thus  of  one  of  the  tribes  in  Central 
Africa  it  is  said :  "  The  Wanyamuezi  have  a  way  of  making  brother- 
hood, similar  to  that  which  has  already  been  described,  except  that 
instead  of  drinking  each  other's  blood,  the  newly  made  brothers  mix  it 
[their  blood]  with  butter  on  a  leaf,  and  exchange  leaves.  The  butter  is 
then  rubbed  into  the  incisions,  so  that  it  acts  as  a  healing  ointment  at 
the  same  time  that  blood  is  exchanged.^  The  ceremony  is  concluded 
by  tearing  the  leaves  to  pieces  and  showering  the  fragments  on  the  heads 
of  the  brothers."  ^  The  Australians,  again,  are  said  to  have  "  the  custom 
of  making  *  Kotaiga^  or  brotherhood,  with  strangers.  When  Europeans 
visit  their  districts,  and  behave  as  they  ought  to  do,  the  natives  generally 
unite  themselves  in  bonds  of  fellowship  with  the  strangers ;  each  select- 
ing one  of  them  as  his  Kotaiga.  The  new  relations  are  then  considered 
as  having  mutual  responsibilities,  each  being  bound  to  forward  the  wel- 
fare of  the  other,"  *  Once  more,  in  Feejee,  two  warriors  sometimes  bind 
themselves  to  each  other  by  a  formal  ceremony,  and  although  its  details 
1  Ellis's  Polynesian  Researches,  II.,  569  f.  2  Cge  Prov.  27  :  9. 

8  Cited  from  Capt.  Grant's  description  ;  in  Wood's  Unciv.  Races,  1.,  440. 
<Ibid.,\\.,'S>\. 


APPENDIX.  339 

are  not  described,  a  missionary  writer  says  of  it :  "  The  manner  in  which 
they  do  this  is  singular,  and  wears  the  appearance  of  a  marriage  con- 
tract; and  the  two  men  entering  into  it  are  spoken  of  as  man  and  wife, 
to  indicate  the  closeness  of  their  military  union.  By  this  mutual  bond, 
the  two  men  pledge  themselves  to  oneness  of  purpose  and  effort,  to  stand 
by  each  other  in  every  danger,  defending  each  other  to  the  death,  and 
if  needful  to  die  together."  ^ 

With  the  American  Indians,  there  are  various  traces  of  the  blood- 
brotherhood  idea.  Says  Captain  Clai-k,  in  his  work  on  the  Indian  Sign 
Language :  "  Among  many  tribes  there  are  brothers  by  adoption, 
and  the  tie  seems  to  be  held  about  as  sacredly  as  though  created  by 
nature."  ^  Stephen  Powell,  writing  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Indians,  gives  this 
tie  of  brotherhood-adoption  yet  more  prominence,  than  does  Clark.  He 
says :  "  There  is  an  interesting  institution  found  among  the  Wyandots, 
as  among  some  other  of  our  North  American  tribes,  namely,  that  of 
fellowship.  Two  young  men  agree  to  be  perpetual  friends  to  each  other, 
or  more  than  brothers.  Each  reveals  to  the  other  the  secrets  of  his  life, 
and  counsels  with  him  on  matters  of  importance,  and  defends  him  from 
wrong  and  violence,  and  at  his  death  is  chief  mourner."  ^  This  cer- 
tainly suggests  the  relation  of  blood-brotherhood;  whether  blood  be 
intermingled  in  the  consummation  of  the  rite,  or  not. 

Colonel  Dodge  tells  of  a  ceremony  of  Indian-brotherhood,  which  in- 
cludes a  bloody  rite,  worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection.     Pie  says  : 
"  A  strong  flavor  of  religious  superstition  attaches  to  a  scalp,  and  many 
solemn  contracts  and  binding  obligations  can  only  be  made  over  or  by 
means  of  a  scalp  ;  "  for  is  it  not  the  representative  of  a  life  ?     In  illus- 
tration of  this,  he  gives  an  incident  which  followed  an  Indian  battle,  in 
which   the    Pawnees   had   borne  a  part  with   the  whites  against   the 
Northern  Cheyennes.    Colonel  Dodge  was  sitting  in  his  tent,  when  "  the 
1  Williams  and  Calvert's  Fiji  and  Fijians ,  p.  35. 
^Indian  Sign  Language,  s.  v.  "  Brother." 
8  Contributions  to  No.  Am.  Ethnology,  Vo..  III.,  p.  68. 


340  APPENDIX. 

acting  head-chief  of  the  Pawnees  stalked  in  gravely,  and  without  a 
word."  The  Colonel  continues  :  "  We  had  long  been  friends,  and  had 
on  several  occasions  been  in  tight  places  together.  He  sat  down  on  the 
side  of  my  bed,  looked  at  me  kindly,  but  solemnly,  and  began  in  a  low 
tone  to  mutter  in  his  own  language,  half  chant,  half  recitative.  Know- 
ing that  he  was  making  *  medicine '  [that  he  was  engaged  in  a  religious 
exercise]  of  some  kind,  I  looked  on  without  comment.  After  some 
moments,  he  stood  erect,  and  stretched  out  his  hand  to  me.  I  gave  him 
my  hand.  He  pulled  me  into  a  standing  position,  embraced  me,  passed 
his  hands  lightly  over  my  head,  face,  arms,  body,  and  legs  to  my  feet, 
muttering  all  the  while  ;  embraced  me  again,  then  turned  his  back  upon 
me,  and  with  his  face  toward  heaven,  appeared  to  make  adoration.  He 
then  turned  to  embrace  and  manipulate  me  again.  After  some  five 
minutes  of  this  performance,  he  drew  from  his  wallet  a  package,  and 
unrolling  it,  disclosed  a  freshly  taken  [and  therefore  still  bloody]  scalp 
of  an  Indian.  Touching  me  with  this  [blood-vehicle]  in  various  places 
and  ways,  he  finally  drew  out  his  knife,  [and  *  cutting  the  covenant '  in 
this  way,  he]  divided  the  scalp  carefully  along  the  part  [the  seam]  of 
the  hair,  and  handing  me  one  half,  embraced  me  again,  kissing  me  on 
the  forehead.  *  Now,'  said  he  in  English,  '  you  are  my  brother.'  He 
subsequently  informed  me  that  this  ceremony  could  not  have  been  per- 
formed without  this  scalp."  ^ 

Here  seems  to  be  an  illustration  of  cutting  the  covenant  of  blood- 
brotherhood,  by  sharing  the  life  of  a  substitute  human  victim.  It  is 
much  the  same  in  the  wild  West  as  in  the  primitive  East. 

So  simple  a  matter  as  the  clasping  of  hands  in  token  of  covenant 
fidelity,  is  explicable,  in  its  universality,  only  as  a  vestige  of  the  primitive 
custom  of  joining  pierced  hands  in  the  covenant  of  blood-friendship. 
Hand-clasping  is  not,  by  any  means,  a  universal,  nor  is  it  even  the  com- 
monest, mode  of  friendly  and  fraternal  salutation  among  primitive  peoples. 
Prostrations,  embracings,  kissings,  nose-rubbings,  slappings  of  one's  own 
1  Dodge's  Our  Wild  Indians,  page  514  f. 


APPENDIX.  341 

body,  jumpings  up  and  down,  the  snappings  of  one's  fingers,  the  blowing 
of  one's  breath,  and  even  the  rolHng  upon  one's  back,  are  all  among  the 
many  methods  of  primitive  man's  salutations  and  obeisances  (See,  e.  g,, 
Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology,  II.,  16-19).  ^^t,  even  where  hand 
clasping  is  unknown  in  salutation,  it  is  recognized  as  a  symbol  of  the 
closest  friendship.  Thus,  for  example,  among  tribes  of  North  American 
Indians  where  nose-rubbing  is  the  mode  of  salutation,  there  is,  in  their 
widely  diffused  sign  language,  the  sign  of  clasped,  or  inter-locked,  hands, 
as  indicative  of  friendship  and  union.  [First  An.  Rep.  of  Bureau  of 
Ethnol.,  pp.  385  f.,  521,  534  f.)  So  again,  similarly,  in  Australia  [Ibid., 
citation  from  Smith's  Aborigines  of  Victoria,  II.,  308).  In  the  Society 
Islands,  the  clasping  of  hands  marks  the  marriage  union,  and  marks  a 
loving  union  between  two  brothers  in  arms ;  although  it  has  no  place  in 
ordinary  greetings  (Ellis's  Polyn.  Res.,  II.,  II.,  Ii,  492,  569).  And  so, 
again,  in  other  primitive  lands. 

There  seems,  indeed,  to  be  a  gleam  of  this  thought  in  Job  17:3: 

"  Give  now  a  pledge,  be  surety  for  me  with  thyself; 
Who  is  there  that  will  strike  hands  with  me?  " 

The  Hebrew  word /<z^ 'a  (J^pr^)ihere  translated  "strike,"  has  also  the 
meaning  "to  pierce  "  (Judg.  4:  21)  and  "to  blow  through,"  or  "to  drive 
through  "  (Num.  10 :  3) ;  and  Job's  question  might  be  freely  rendered ; 
Who  is  there  that  will  pierce  [or  that  will  clasp  pierced]  hands  with  me, 
in  blood-friendship  ?     Thus,  suretyship  grew  out  of  blood-covenanting. 

Again,  in  Zechariah  13:6,  where  the  prophet  foretells  the  moral 
reformation  of  Judah,  there  is  a  seeming  reference  to  the  pierced  hands 
of  blood-friendship.  When  one  is  suspected  of  being  a  professional 
prophet,  by  certain  marks  of  cuttings  between  his  hands,  he  declares  that 
these  are  marks  of  his  blood-covenant  with  his  friends.  "  And  one  shall 
say  unto  him.  What  are  these  wounds  [these  cuttings]  between  thine 
hands  ?     Then  he  shall  answer,  [They  are]  these  [cuttings]  with  which 

1  Is  there  any  correspondence  between  this  word,  tag' a,  and  the  Hindoo  word 
tika  (the  blood-mark  on  the  Rajput  chief),  referred  to  at  page  137,  supra? 

29* 


342  APPENDIX. 

I  was  wounded  [or  stricken,  or  pierced]  in  the  house  of  my  friends  [in 
the  covenant  of  friendship]."  If,  indeed,  the  translation  of  the  Revisers, 
"  between  thine  arms,"  were  justified,  the  cuttings  would  still  seem  to  be 
the  cuttings  of  the  blood-covenant  (See  pages  13,  45,  supra). 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  among  the  Jews  in  Tunis,  near  the  old 
Phoenician  settlement  of  Carthage,  the  sign  of  a  bleeding  hand  is  still 
an  honored  and  a  sacred  symbol,  as  if  in  recognition  of  the  covenant- 
bond  of  their  brotherhood  and  friendship.  "  What  struck  me  most  in  all 
the  houses,"  says  a  traveler  (Chevalier  de  Hesse-Wartegg)  among  these 
Jews,  «  was  the  impression  of  an  open  bleeding  hand,  on  every  wall 
of  each  floor.  However  white  the  walls,  this  repulsive  [yet  suggestive] 
sign  was  to  be  seen  everywhere." 

How  many  times,  in  the  New  Testament  epistles,  does  the  idea  show 
itself,  of  an  inter-union  of  lives,  between  Christ  and  his  disciples,  and  be- 
tween these  disciples  and  each  other,  "  We,  who  are  many,  are  one 
body  in  Christ,  and  severally  members  one  of  another"  (Rom.  12:  5). 
"  We  are  members  of  his  body  "  (Eph.  5  :  30).  "  We  are  members  one 
of  another"  (Eph.  4:  25).  "Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  mem- 
bers of  Christ?"  (i  Cor.  6:  15).  "Ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
severally  [are]  members  thereof"  (i  Cor.  12 :  27). 

It  is  in  this  truth  of  truths,  concerning  the  possibility  of  an  inter-union 
of  the  human  life  with  the  divine,  through  a  common  inter-bloodflow, 
that  there  is  found  a  satisfying  of  the  noblest  heart  yearnings  of  primitive 
man  everywhere,  and  of  the  uttermost  spiritual  longings  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced Christian  believer,  in  the  highest  grade  of  intellectual  and  moral 
enlightenment.  No  attainment  of  evolution,  or  of  development,  has  brought 
man's  latest  soul-cry  beyond  the  intimations  of  his  earliest  soul-outreaching. 

"  Take,  dearest  Lord,  this  crushed  and  bleeding  heart. 
And  lay  it  in  thine  hand,  thy  piercfed  hand ; 
That  thine  atoning  blood  may  mix  with  mine. 
Till  I  and  my  Beloved  are  all  one. ' ' 


INDEXES. 


TOPICAL   INDEX. 


Abel,  his  blood-giving,  210  ff. 

Abimelech,  his  covenant :  with  Abra- 
ham, 265  ;  with  Isaac,  267  f. 

Abraham  :  The  friend  of  God,  215-221  ; 
his  blood-giving,  217-221 ;  his  faith- 
testing,  224-230 :  his  covenant  with 
Abimelech,  265  f. 

Adoption,  blood  used  in,  195  f. 

Ahab's  fate,  significance  of,  312. 

Altar,  a  table  of  communion,  167,  292  f. 

Amulet :  house  of  the,  7,  65,  298  ;  of  the 
covenant,  81  f. ,  83,  232-238.  See 
Phylactery  ;  Token  of  covenant. 

Anointing  with  blood  :  in  Central 
America,  go  f. ;  in  Arabia,  120;  in 
the  Arthurian  romance,  120  f.  ; 
among  the  Bheels,  136  f.  ;  among 
the  Caribs,  137  f. ;  among  the  Cen- 
tral Africans,  138  ;  among  the  Chi- 
nese, 154  ;  among  the  Jsorth  Amer- 
ican Indians,  306  f. ;  among  the 
Australians,  336  f. 

Antiquity  of  the  blood-covenant,  6, 
58  if.,  77  ff.,  206,  320 

Ark,  the,  covering  record  of  blood  cove- 
nant, 298.  See  Amulet,  house  of  the. 

Assiraium,  its  meaning,  63  ff. 

Avenger  of  blood.     See  Goel. 

Baal-bereeth  :  god-father  in  circum- 
cision, 218;    god  of  the  covenant, 

218,317. 
Banquet,  connection  of,  with  sacrifice  : 

in  China,  148  ff.  ;  in  India,  159  ff. ; 

in    Babylonia    and    Assyria,    167  ; 

among  the  Bed'ween,  179  f. ;  among 

American  Indians,  179  f. 
Bed'ween  Brotherhoods,  9  f.     See  also 

Blood-covenant. 
Belt:  royal,  of  Tahiti,  328;    wampum 

of   American    Indian,  a   covenant 

record,  326  ff. 
Blood :    thicker    than    milk,    10 ;    not 

eaten.     See   Prohibition   of  blood. 

Vivifying  power  of,  iioff. ;  belongs 

to  God,  204 ;  symbolism  of,  in  uni- 
;        versal    speech,   309   f. ;  life-giving, 

in:  Mexican  legend,  iii  f . ;  Egyp- 


U. 


tian  legend,  inf.;  Chaldean  legend, 
112  ;  Phoenician  legend,  112  ;  Greek 
legend,  112  ;  modern  science,  115  f. ; 
sacredness  of  in:  Egypt,  99  ff . ; 
America,  105  ff. ;  India,  109, 158  ff. ; 
China,  109.    See  Offerings  of  blood. 

Blood-baths:  in  Egypt,  116  f.,  324;  in 
mediseval  Europe,  117  ff.  ;  in  Scan- 
dinavia, 121  f.  ;  in  India,  122  f.  ; 
in  Bechuana-land,324. 

Blood-covenant :  defined,  4  f . ;  a  primi- 
tive rite,  4,  6,  8  ;  its  sacredness,  6  f. ; 
influence  of,  15 ;  refused,  21  ;  recog- 
nized, 26  f.  ;  in  Syria,  5  ff.  ;  in  Africa, 
12-38 ;  in  Europe,  39-43  ;  in  China, 
f, ;  in  Burmah,  44,  313  f. ;  in 
ladagascar,  44  f.,  44-49  ;  in  Borneo, 
49-52 ;  in  Timor,  53  f. ;  in  Yucatan, 
54  f. ;  in  Brazil,  55;  in  Scythia, 
58  f.,  61  f.  ;  in  South  America,  334  ; 
in  Egypt,  77-84 ;  traces  of,  in 
China,  153 ;  full  symbolism  of,  202  f.; 
Noah's,  213  ;  at  Sinai,  238-240,  298  ; 
importance  commonly  undervalued, 
297;  a  safeguard  in  Burmah,  315. 

Blood-lickers,  11,  59.  See  Drinking  of 
Blood. 

Blood-money :  in  the  East,  260  ff. ;  re- 
fused by  Gibeonites,  324  f. ;  ac- 
cepted :  by  Arabs,  325 ;  by  North 
American  Indians,  325.     See  Goel. 

Blood-sucking,  8,  30,  43,  92,  114  f.  See 
Drinking  of  blood. 

Blood-transference.  See  Blood-cove- 
nant; Transfusion  of  blood. 

Book  of  the  Dead,  78-83. 

Bracelet,  assymbol,  65-76. 

Bread:  ofRa,  173;  covenant  of,  293,  313. 

Breaking  the  grass,  315. 

Brebeuf,  heart  of,  127. 

Brotherhoods,  blood.  See  Blood-cove- 
nant. 

Bruce,  heart  of,  107  f. 

Burial  in  brotherhood,  41. 

Cain,  his  blood  withholding,  210  ff. 
Cameron,  Commander,  making  blood- 
friendship,  15  ff. 

345 


346 


TOPICAL  INDEX, 


Cannibalism  :  religious  origin  of,  183  f., 
184;  in  India,  185  f . ;  in  Feejee, 
187  ;  in  North  America,  187  f.,  308  ; 
in  Central  and  South  America, 
180  f.  ;  in  Europe,  189  f. 

Caste-distinctions  lost  in  communion, 
161  flF. 

Cataline's  blood-covenant,  60  f.  (See 
stamp  on  outside  cover  ) 

Christ,  his  blood,  fulfillment  of  human 
desire,  271-286. 

Christians,  charges  of  cannabalism 
against,  321. 

Circumcision,  a  mode  of  blood-cove- 
nanting, 215-223,  237;  its  modern 
methods,  218  f. 

Clasped  hands  :  a  relic  of  the  covenant, 
328,  340.     See  Hands. 

Classics,  references  to  blood-covenant  in, 
58-65,  267,  297,  312. 

Communion  :  through  blood,  147  ff. ;  in 
China,  148  ff.  ;  in  Assyria,  168  f.  ; 
divine-human,  in  Egypt,  172.  See 
Altar;  Banquet;  Union.  In  Christ, 
foretold,  275-278 ;  instituted,  280- 
284;  realized,  285  f. 

Covenant,  between  those  of  different 
religions,  7.     See  Blood-covenant. 

Covenant  of  Bread,  its  symbolism,  293, 
313- 

Cry  of  blood  from  the  ground,  212. 

Cutting  covenant :  meaning  of  term, 
267  f.,  322  ;  between  Jacob  and  La- 
ban,  269  ;  in  one's  own  body,  322  ;  in 
substitute  victim,  322  ;  both  methods 
in  Borneo. 

Cuttings  in  flesh,  218 ;  in  friendship,  in 
Zechariah,  341. 

David  and  Jonathan,  covenanting, 
269  ff. 

Dead,  blood-covenant  with,  299. 

Discerning  the  communion-body,  172. 

Drinking  of  blood  :  in  North  America, 
127 ;  in  Syria,  6 ;  in  Central  Africa, 
13,  28ff. ;  in  Europe,  41,  60  f. ;  in 
Madagascar,  44,  48 ;  in  Borneo,  49 
f.,52;  in  Timor,  53  ;  in  Scythia,  59, 
62,  126  ;  in  Egypt,  83  ;  in  India,  92 
f.  ;  in  China,  123  f. ;  in  France,  124  ; 
in  Italy,  124  f. ;  in  language  of  Fel- 
laheen, 130;  among  the  Germans, 
320;  in  Persia,  321;  in  Australia, 
336;  charge  of,  against  Jews,  179, 
321 ;  charge  of,  against  .Christians, 

321. 

Drinking  the  covenant :  9,  17  t.,  60,  191 
f. ;  in  Borneo,  ic2  ;  in  Feejee,  193 ; 
in  China,  196  ;  in  Central  America, 
197 ;  in  Europe,  198  ff. 

Eating  together,  in  covenant,  268  f. 
Exchange  :  of  gifts,  14,  i6, 20  f.,  22,  25  f., 


2'7  f.,  32;  of  garments,  14,  270;    of 
arms,  270. 
Evolution,  or  deterioration,  4. 

Feathers,  red,  their  significance,  328  f. 
See  Red  as  a  symbol. 

Feeding  on  the  god:  176  f.  See  Com- 
munion ;   Union. 

Fiery  cross  :  its  significance  in  Arabia, 
317  f  ;  in  Scotland,  319  ff. 

Fire,  a  gift  of  the  gods,  174. 

Firstborn,  blood  of  the,  156. 

sacrifice  of:  in  China,  150  f.;  in 

pre-Semitic  times,  166. 

Food  restrictions  removed  in  commun- 
ion :  in  India,  161  ff . ;  in  Assyria, 
168. 

Friend,  closer  than  brother,  7  f ,  10. 

Friendship,  blood.  See  Blood-covenant. 

Girdle.     See  Belts. 

Ghouls  seeking  life  in  blood,  114  f. 

Giving  blood  :  in  proof  of  love,  85-92  ; 
in  worship,  89-93,  96. 

Goel,  pursuer,  not  avenger,  of  blood, 
259-563 ;  in  Brazil,  325 ;  in  Aus- 
tralia, 325  f. 

Golden  legend.  Blood  transference  in, 
118  ff. 

Hand,  bleeding,  in  Tunis,  342. 

Hands  :  joined  in  blood,  12,  41  f ,  235  f. ; 
clasped,  token  of,  328,  340  ff. 

Healths,  drinking  of,  relic  of  blood- 
drinking,  201  f. 

Heart:  sacredness  of,  in  Egypt,  99  ff., 
300  ff.  ;  as  life,  outside  of  the  body, 
103  ffx,  301  f.  ;  sacredness  of,  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  108  f.  ;  epitome 
of  man,  107  ;  the  symbol  of  person- 
ality, 204 ;  new,  is  new  life,  303  ;  the 
seat  of  the  soul,  304 ;  living,  in  pet- 
rifactions, 305  ;  source  of  life,  99  ff.  ; 
of  strength,  135  ;  of  manhood,  135 ; 
of  courage,  136. 

Heart-eating :  among  American  In- 
dians, 128  ;  in  British  Guiana,  128  ; 
in  Australia,  129  ;  in  Africa,  129  ;  in 
Borneo,  129. 

Heathen  communions  and  the  Christian 
sacrament,  177. 

Human  sacrifices.  See  Sacrifices,  hu- 
man. 

Idols,  anointed  with  blood,  176  f.,  306 f. 
Illustrations  of  blood-covenant,  in  Bible, 

264-271. 
Imprecatory  oaths,  6,  9,  16,  20,  31,  45 

ff.,  51,  53,  60  f,  62. 
Imputation,  doctrine  of,  221. 
Incest,  in  marriage  of  blood-friends,  10, 

55  f. 
Influence  of  blood-covenant,  15,  48. 


TOPICAL  INDEX. 


347 


Inspiration  through  blood :  in  Homer, 
113  ff.  ;  in  Norseland  legends,  1^9 
f. ;  on  Pacific  coast,  140  f. ;  in  India, 
141  f. 

Isaac;  his  blood  proffered,  225-230  ;  his 
covenant  with  Abimelech,  267  f. 

Isis,  blood  of,  81  f.,  233. 

Jacob,  his  covenant  with  Laban,  268  f. 
Jagan-natha,  communion  of,  163  f. 
Jews,  charged  with  human  sacrifices, 

178  f ,  321. 
Jezebel's  fate,  significance  of,  312  f. 
Jonathan  and  David,  covenanting,  269  ff. 

Kali,  human  sacrifices  to,  158  f. 
Khatan,  one  bound  through  bleeding, 

222  f. 
Krishna,  communion  of,  163  f. 

Leprosy  :  blood  baths,  for  cure  of,  in 
Syria,  116;  in  Egypt,  117,  324;  in 
mediaeval  Europe,  117. 

Life:  blood  is,  38,  57,  79  flf.,  88  f.,  99, 
211-215,  241-263,  299  ff.,  306. 

from   divine   blood :    in    Egypt, 

III  f  ;  in  Mexico,  iii  f.  ;  in  Chaldea, 
112;  in  Phoenicia,  112;  in  Greece, 
112. 

Life-transference  in  blood-transference, 
126  ff.  See  Soul  transference; 
Transfusion  of  blood. 

Liver  :  a  symbol  of  life,  303  f.  ;  proposed 
derivationsof  the  word,  304  f;  sym- 
bolism of:  as  a  blood-cistern,  303  f. ; 
as  seat  of  emotion,  304  ;  as  congealed 
blood,  304  f. ;  eaten,  like  the  heart, 
306. 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  making  blood-friend- 
ship, 13  ff. 

Mandrakes,  symbolism  of,  in. 
Marriage,  blood-drinking  in,  191  ff.,  332. 

See  Symbolic  substitutes  for  blood  ; 

wedding,  ceremonies  of. 
Marriage-covenant,  blood  in,  192  i. 
Milk-brothers,  11  f. 
Moses  :  his  child's  circumcision,  221  ff. ; 

his  blood-covenant  at  Sinai,  238  ff. 

Name  :  a  lost,  334 ;  the  new,  337  f. ; 
restitution  for  calling,  of  the  dead, 

represents  the  life,  334  f. ;  in  the 

Society  Islands,  334 ;  among  In- 
dians, 334  f. ;  among  Austr^uians, 
335  f 

Names,  exchange  of,  334  AT. 

Nature,  transference  of,  by  blood  trans- 
ference :  126  ff. ;  among  the  Caribs, 
137  f . ;  among  the  Kaffirs,  138; 
among  the  Yarubas,  138  f. 

Necklace,  symbolism  of,  76  f. 

New  covenant,  Christ's  body  and  blood 
in,  299. 


Noah's  blood-giving,  212  ff. 
Norseland  legends,  41  flf.,  88  f. 

Odin  and  L6k6,  in  covenant,  39  ff. 
Offerings  of  blood  :  in  Egypt,  102  f. ;  in 

America,    106  f. ;    in    Greece    and 

Rome,  108  f  ;  in  Phoenicia,  109  :  in 

India,  109  ;  in  China,  109  ;  in  Arabia, 

180. 
One  soul  in  two  bodies,  38,  80,  92  f.,  334. 
Ordeal   of   touch :    in   the   Nibelungen 

Lied,  143  f.  ;  in  Denmark,  144  f.  ; 

in  Scotland,  145  ;  in  England,  146  f.; 

in  America,  147. 
Otaheite,  See  Tahiti. 

Passover,  substitute  blood  of,  231  f. 

Phoenicia,  blood-giving  in,  89  f. 

Phylacteries,  the  token  of  blood-cove- 
nant, 233-236;  and  amulet,  329. 

Preserving  blood,  as  life,  88  f.,  337  f. 
See  Life,  blood  is. 

Prohibition  of  blood-drinking,  214  f. ;  in 
the  Mosaic  law,  240  f, ;  reason  for, 
312. 

Prophecy,  Blood  as  a  means  of,  113  ff. 

Quiche  god,  Tohil,  his  terms  of  cove- 
nant, 174. 

Ra,  communion  with,  in  Amenti,  172, 
333  f- 

Ransoming  by  blood,  324  ff.     See  Goel. 

Record  of  the  divine  blood-covenant, 
298  ;  of  the  covenant :  among  Amer- 
ican Indians,  326  ff. 

Red  as  a  symbol  of  blood,  in  Egypt, 
102  f.,  173  ;  in  China,  196 ;  the  color, 
its  symbolism,  236  f.  See  also. 
Feathers,  red. 

Revenger  of  blood.     See  Goel. 

Ring  :  symbolism  of,  65-76,  330  ff.  ;  in 
Dayak  divorce,  330;  of  flesh,  331. 

Rosetta-stone  of  the  covenant,  267. 

Russia  :  customs  in,  73  ;  blood  giving 
in,  96. 

Sacrament,  Christian  :  its  relation  to 
heathen  communions,  177;  fore- 
shadowed in  the  Old  Testament, 
274  f. ;  instituted  by  Jesus,  281  ff.  ; 
not  a  sacrifice,  292 ;  a  two-fold 
covenant,  293. 

of  the  Holy  Food,  164. 

Sacredness  of  blood  :  in  Egypt,  99  ff.  ; 
in  America,  105  ff. ;  in  India,  155. 
See  offerings  of  blood. 

Sacrifice  :  as  communion,  in  China,  149 
ff.  ;  not  necessarily  expiatory,  166  ; 
of  Isaac,  224-230. 

Sacrifices  :  Egyptian  and  Jewish,  their 
resemblance,  300. 

'    human,    among    the    Nahuas, 
105  f. ;  among  the  Mayas,  106  f. ;  in 


348 


TOPICAL  INDEX. 


India,  157  ff.,  227;  in  Assyria,  166  f.; 
of  children,  in  Guatemala,  174 ;  in 
Arabia,  227  ;  in  the  Norseland,  227  ; 
in  (jreat  Britain,  227  f. 

human   and   animal,  succession 

of:  in  China,  152  ;  in  India,  155  f. ; 
in  the  Brahmanical  books,  157  f. 

"  Sacrificial  part,"  blood  the,  157  f. 

Saffron,  symbolism  of,  77,  165. 

water:  in  wedding,  332 ;  a  sub- 
stitute for  blood,  195  f. 

Saul,  his  phylacteries,  237  f. 

Scarabseus,  a  symbol  of  heart,  100,300. 

Signing  with  blood,  93  ff. 

Smoking,  in  inter-union,  51,  309. 

Society  Islands,  brotherhoods  in,  56  f. 

Soul-transference  by  blood-transference, 
312  f.  See  Life-transference,  Trans- 
fusion of  blood. 

Spiritual  conceptions  not  innate,  311. 

Stanley,  Henry  M.,  making  blood- 
friendship,  18-38. 

Stone,  white,  and  new  name,  337. 

Stones,  living,  119  f.,  307  f. 

Striking  :  a  covenant,  59,  62  ;  hands,  in 
covenant,  236,  341  i. 

Substitute-blood  offered  :  in  Borneo,  52, 
73  ;  in  Egypt,  72  ;  in  China,  148  ; 
m  South  America,  177;  in  liible 
times,  211,  213;  at  Sinai,  239-258. 
See  Symbolic  substitutes. 

Sucking-brothers,  11  f. 

Symbolic  substitutes  for  blood,  191  fF.  ; 
the  assiratum,  63  ff.  ;  arrack,  192  ; 
coffee,  192 ;  any  ordinary  spirit- 
uous liquor,  193;  saffron,  194,  332; 
wine  and  honey,  196;  chica,  197; 
wine,  198  ff.  ;  whisky,  316. 

Symbols,  scriptural  and  ethnic,  their 
relationship,  206. 

Table-Altar  :  in  Assyria,  167  ;  in  the 
Old  Testament,  167  f. ;  in  the  New 
Testament,  292  f. 

Thumbs  bound,  in  covenant,  59,71,  331. 

Token  of  passover  covenant,  232.  See 
Covenant,  token  of  the. 

Touch,  life  by,  of  blood,  134  ff. 

Transfusion  of  blood  :  38  f.  ;  modern 
scientific,  115  f.  ;  among  Egyptians, 
ii6f.  ;  among  Hebrews,  116  ;  among 
Syrians,  116;  in  Tasmania,  126; 
a  cure  for  insanity,  133  f. 

Transmigration  of  souls,  origin  of  be- 
lief in,  310. 

Tree  :  branch  of,  in  the  covenant,  35  ff . ; 
of  the  covenant,  53  ;  the  fiery  cross 
in  Scotland,  317  ft.  ;  the  war-signal 
in  Arabia,  318.     See  Tree-planting. 

Tree-planting  in  blood-covenant :  in 
Borneo,  53 ;  in  India,  165 ;  in  Bur- 
mah,  313  ;  in  Israel,  316  ;  traces  of, 
316  f. 


Trial  by  blood  :  in  the  Nibelungen  Lied, 
143  f. ;  in  Denmark,  144  f. ;  in  Scot- 
land, 145  ;  in  England,  146  f. ;  in 
America,  147. 

Turkey,  blood-giving  in,  85. 

Types,  insufficiency  of,  252-258. 

Uarda,  citation  from,  84. 

Union  :  (divine)  through  blood ;  in 
Egypt,  333  f. ;  in  the  Norseland, 
40  f. 

(divine-human)  through    blood  : 

in  Phoenicia,  89  ;  in  Armenia,  90  ; 
in  India,  92,  156  ff. ;  in  Central 
America,  90  f,  17s  f .  ;  in  Russia, 
95  ;  in  China,  148  f.  ;  in  Assyria, 
167  f.  ;  in  Persia,  i6q  f.  ;  in  Egypt, 
170  f .  ;  in  Guatemala,  174;  in  the 
Mosaic  ritual,  242-2  8  ;  Abel's  out- 
reaching  for  it,  210  ff.  ;  Noah's  out- 
reaching  for  it,  213  ff. ;  Abraham's 
outreaching  for  it,  217-221 ;  univer- 
sal longing  for  it,  272 ;  realized, 
through  Christ,  273-293,  342. 

(human)  through  blood  :  in  Syria, 

5-12  ;  in  Africa,  12-38  ;  in  the  Norse- 
land, 41  ff. ;  in  Madagascar,  44-49  ; 
in  Borneo,  49-52,  73 ;  in  Timor,  52- 
54  ;  in  Yucatan,  54  f.  ;  in  Brazil,  55  ; 
in  North  America,  55  f.,  339  f. ;  in 
the  South  Sea  Islands,  56  f. ;  in 
Scythia,  59  f.,  61  f .  ;  in  Armenia, 
59  f. ;  in  Arabia,  62  f.  ;  in  Egypt, 
72,  77-84;  in  India,  156;  in  Tahiti, 
338  ;  in  Central  Africa,  338 ;  in  Bur- 
mah,  314  f. 

'  (Satanic-human)  through  blood  : 

among  witches,  93  ff. ;  among  won- 
der-workers, 95. 

Unity  of  the  human  race,  57,  96,  178  f. 

Vampires  :  seeking  life  in  blood,  114  f.  ; 

in  the  Old  World  and  the  New,  115. 
Vicarious     blood-absorption :     131     f. ; 

among  the  Araucanians,  131 ;  among 

the   Abyssinians,  132 ;    among  the 

Australians,  133. 
Victim,   representing  a    deity,    177  f., 

183  f 
Vivifying  power  of  blood.     See  Blood, 

life-giving. 

Wampum-belts,  a  covenant  record,  326. 
Water-of-saffron  children,  195. 
Wedding,  ceremonies  of,  69-74. 
Wine,  symbolism  of,  63  ff.,  73. 
Witchcraft,  blood  in,  93  ff. 
Witness-heap,  62,  266. 

XoLOTL,  rescues  a  lost  race,  112. 

Yajna,  great  sacrifice  of,  161  fF.    . 

ZiPPORAH,  her  act  of  blood-giving,  222  f. 
Zoroastrians,  their  communion,  169  f. 


SCRIPTURAL  INDEX. 


GENESIS. 

TEXT  PAGE 

4:2-5 211 

4  :    10,  II 2X2 

8  :  20 213 

9:3-6 214 

12  :  6-8 268 

13:  18 317 

14:  13 264,317 

14  :  22 235 

15  :  6 220 

15  :  7-18 322 

15 :  18 264 

17  :  1-12 322 

17  :  2,  7-9,  10,  II,  13  .  217 

18:  I 317 

21 :  12 275 

21  :•  22-24 265 

21 :  30,  31,  33 266 

21:  33 317 

22  :  I,  2 2.-5 

22  :  15,  18 230 

22  :  18 267 

26  :  25-29 268 

26  :  30,  31 268 

28  :  18-22 268 

30:  T4-17 I" 

31 :  19-36 268 

31 :  44-47 266 

31 :  44-54 269 

34  :  1-31 218 

41 :  41,42 70 

49  :  II 191 

EXODUS. 

2:5 324 

4:9 231 

4:  20-26 221,222 

7  :  17-21 231 

12  :  1-6 231 

12  :  7-10 153 

12  :  7-13 232 

13:  3-10.  11-16  ....  233 

21 :  18-27 261 

22  :  14-17 261 

24  :  i-ii 240 

24  :  3-8 298 

24  :  8 299 

24:  5,  6 213 

29  :  15-25 213 

33 :  II 216 

LEVITICUS. 

1 :  1-6 213 

I  :  5,  ".  15 249 

I  :  10-12 213 

1 :  13, 17 247 

1 :  14, 15 213 


TEXT  PAGE 

2  :  2,  12 247 

3  :  8,  26 247 

4 :  6,  7,  17,  18,  25,  30, 

34 248 

4  :  13, 14 247 

7  :  26 241 

8  :  14-22 249 

8:  18, 19 213 

9  :  8-22 249 

14  :  19,  20 249 

16  :  3-25 249 

16  :  14,  15 248 

17:  3-6 243 

17 :  10-12 241 

17  :  11-14 287 

17:  13 243 

17:  14 241,309 

25  :  25  ff. 260 

25  :  47  ff 260 

27  :  1-8 261 

NUMBERS. 

35  :  12 2^9 

35  :  19,  21,  24,  25,  27  .  259 

35  :  9-34 260 

36  :  30-34 261 

DEUTERONOMY. 

6  :  4-9,  13-22 234 

8:3 173 

10:  14-16 256 

12  :  23 64 

19  :  6, 12 259 

22  :  13-21 223 

27  :  9-26 47 

28  :  1-68 47 

30  :  1-6 257 

32  :  14 191 

JOSHUA. 

2  :  18-20 236 

20 :  3,  5,  9 259 

JUDGES. 

8  :  33 218 

9:4 218 

9:1-6 317 

RUTH. 
1 :  14 211 

I  SAMUEL. 
18 :  1-3    . 270 

18  :  4 270 

19  :  1-7 270 

20 :  1-13 270 

20 :  13-17 271 


2  SAMUEL. 

TEXT  PAGE 

1 :  1-16 237 

i:  10 75 

I  :  26 270 

7:1 271 

9:  1-13 271 

12  :  17 264 

14:  II 259 

21 :  1-9 324 

1  KINGS. 

18 ;  26-28 90 

21 :  17-23 313 

22  :  35-38 313 

2  KINGS. 

5  :  1-14 116 

9  :  30-37 313 

19  :  37 i63 

2  CHRONICLES. 

20  :  7 216 

EZRA. 
4:2 168 

ESTHER. 

3:  10-12 70 

8:2 70 

JOB. 

3:2-9 46 

19  :  25 259 

23:  12 173 

PSALMS. 

16 :  4 63 

16  :  4,  5 252 

19  :  14 259 

50:  7-17 253 

56:  8 8S 

78  :  35 259 

PROVERBS. 

3:1-4 257 

4:  18 78 

4  :  23 loi 

6:1 236 

7:  2,  3-  • 257 

II  :  15  margin  ....  236 

18  :  24 7 

22  :  24-26 236 

23:  II 259 

27  :  9 338 

ECCLESIASTES. 
4  :  9,  10 8 

349 


350 


SCRIPTURAL  INDEX. 


ISAIAH. 

TEXT  PAGE 

I :  "-17 254 

25  :  6 254 

37  :  38 168 

41 :  8 216 

41  ••  14 259 

43  :  14 259 

44  :  6,  24 259 

47  :  4 259 

48  :  17 259 

49  :  7,  26 259 

49  :  16 234 

49  :  18 235 

51  :  10 259 

53  :  4-6,  12 286 

54  :  5,  8 259 

59  :  20 259 

60 :  16 259 

62  :  8 234 

63  :  16 259 

65 :  II 167 

JEREMIAH. 

7  :  21-23 255 

22  :  24 235 

31 :  II 259 

31 :  31-34 258 

34 :  18 264,  322 

50  :  34 259 

EZEKIEL. 
5:  II 235 

DANIEL. 
12  :  7 235 

HOSEA. 
6:4-7 255 

MALACHI. 
1 :  6,  7 167 

ECCLESIASTICUS. 

39  :  26 191 

50:  15 191 

-"     I  MACCABEES. 
6  :  34 191 

MATTHEW. 

4:4 173 

6  :  31,  32 47 

13:  12 47 

25:  29 47 

26 :  26-28 281 

27 :  33-54 285 

MARK. 
14:  23 281 

14  :  24 299 

15  :  22-39 285 

LUKE. 

IS  :  22 70 

22  :  44 280 


TEXT  PAGE 

22  :  14,  15,  19,  20  .  .   .  281 

23  :  33-47 285 

JOHN. 
1 :  1-14 274 

4  :  34 173 

5  :  26 290 

6:  51,  55 285 

6  :  53,  54 299 

6  :  53-58 276 

6  :  60,  63 277 

6:  60 278 

8:  31,  32 173 

10 :  10,  18 285 

13:1 280 

15:4-7    283 

15:  13 7,229,285 

15  :  13-15 282 

16:  13 173 

17:  1-24 284 

17:  19 173 

19:  17-37 285 

20  :  31 288 

ACTS. 
15  :  2-29 215 

21  :  18-25 215 

ROMANS. 

1 :  18-23 311 

2  :  26-29 257 

4:3 220 

4  :  II,  12 257 

5  :  8-12 289 

5  :  12-21 245 

6  :  4-6 42 

6  :  23 242,286 

8  :  22 272 

8  :  32 273 

12  :  5 342 

1  CORINTHIANS. 

6:15 342 

10:  14-17 293 

10:  21 168 

II :  29 164 

II :  25 281 

12  :  27 342 

13:  II 336 

2  CORINTHIANS. 

5:  17 288,336 

GALATIANS. 

2  :  20 289 

3:6 220 

3  :  6-9,  16,  29     ....  278 

3:7-9 257 

3  :  28,  29 291 

4:5 195 

6:  17 218 

EPHESIANS. 

1:7 288 

2  :  11-16 290 


TEXT  PAGE 

4 :  24 336 

5  :  30 342 

PHILIPPIANS. 
3:3 257 

COLOSSIANS. 

1 :  19,  20 290 

2  :  9-11 291 

2 :  12 42 

2  :  17 258 

3:3 288 

3  :  9,  10 336 

2  TIMOTHY. 
1 :  10 284 

HEBREWS. 

1:1-3 274 

1 :  14-16 278 

2  :  14-16 274 

6:  13 235 

9:8 252 

9  :  16, 17 284 

9  :  19 239 

9  :  20 298 

9  :  24-28 292 

10  :  1-4 272 

10:  4 252 

10 :  5-9 275 

10 :  10,  14-22,  28,  29  .  292 

II :  4 211 

II :  17-19 229 

II :  18 275 

12  :  24 212 

13  :  20 243,  273 

13  :  20,  21 293 

JAMES. 

2 :  21-23 .  230 

2 :  23  .  .  .  .  216,  220,  221 

1  PETER. 

1 :  20 275 

2:2-5 307 

2:17 45 

3;:  18 286 

2  PETER. 

1:4 289 

I  JOHN. 

1:7 288 

5  :  II,  12 286 

5  :  13,  20 288 

REVELATION. 
1:5 288 

6  :  10 212 

7:3 154 

9:4 154 

13  :  8 27s 

13:  16 154 

14:  I 154 

20:  4 154 

22  :  4 154 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


KA  DESH-B  a  R  NEA  ; 

ITS    IMPORTANCE   AND    PROBABLE   SITE,  WITH   THE   STORY    OF  A   HUNT 

FOR  IT;    INCLUDING   STUDIES    OF   THE   ROUTE   OF  THE   EXODUS, 

AND    THE    SOUTHERN    BOUNDARY    OF    THE    HOLY    LAND. 


One  volume,  8vo.,  478  pages,  with  two  maps  and  four 
full  page  illustrations,  $5.00. 


CRITICAL  NOTICES. 

From  TAe  AthencEum  (London). 

"  This  book  contains  a  great  deal  of  new  information  on  the  topography 
of  the  Holy  Land,  derived  from  the  latest  hieroglyphic  documents,  as 
well  as  from  the  accounts  of  recent  travelers.  .  .  .  The  wilderness 
of  Shur  (a  word  meaning  a  wall)  was  beyond  the  Great  Wall  of  Egypt, 
and  was  also,  according  to  the  happy  conjecture  of  our  author,  the 
wilderness  of  Etham.  This  is  an  important  identification,  which  will  be 
a  new  starting-point  for  the  history  of  the  exodus." 

From  The  Academy  (London). 

"This  is  a  truly  noteworthy  book,  and  will  at  once  command  the 
attention  of  all  biblical  scholars." 

From  the  London  Quarterly  Review. 

"This  is  one  of  the  noblest  historical  monographs  that  we  have,  and 
in  some  respects  surpasses  all  other  books  of  the  kind.  .  .  .  The 
reader  will  find  this  work  of  our  American  divine  deeply  engrossing; 
combining,  in  fact,  many  kinds  of  interest  not  often  meeting  in  one 
volume.  We  have  a  fine  historical  insight  running  through  all  the 
ages ;  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  of  the  exodus,  an  intelligent 
attempt  to  settle  them ;  an  intense  enthusiasm  for  the  biblical  history  as 
such,  and  the  dramatic  skill  of  a  modern  traveler.  .  .  .  It  is  a  book 
which  our  young  Hebraists  and  students  of  the  Old  Testament  should 
read  over  and  over  again." 


From  Professor  A.  H.  Sayce,  of  Oxford  University. 

"It  is  one  of  the  most  'thorough'  books  I  have  ever  come  across. 
Among  other  points  proved  by  you,  your  identification  of  the  desert  of 
Shur  is  perhaps  the  neatest  and  most  important." 

From  Professor  Dr.  Franz  Delitzsch,  of  Leipzig  University. 

"As  an  apple  of  Tantalus,  your  splendid  work  concerning  Kadesh- 
Barnea  sways  above  me.  I  am  not  yet  filled  with  it ;  .  .  .  but  it  is 
unbearable  that  I  should  longer  refrain  from  thanking  you.  ...  It 
is  a  great  service  that  you,  following  the  lead  of  the  sainted  Palmer,  have 
made  En  Kudels  the  object  of  your  investigation.  .  .  .  My  com- 
mentary on  Genesis  is  out  of  print.  .  .  .  Would  that  I  could  yet 
once  more  work  over  this  commentary.  .  .  .  Then  I  would  have  an 
opportunity  to  show  my  thankful  appreciation  of  your  work." 

From  Dr.  Hermann  Guthe  (Secretary  of  the  German  Pal- 
estine Society)  in  the  Theologische  Literatur-Zeitung,  of  Leipzig. 

"  Trumbull  appears  to  me  to  be  specially  felicitous  in  his  determination 
of  the  three  roads  leading  out  from  Egypt  to  the  East,  -w^hich  are  of  great 
importance  for  the  general  history  of  the  further  East.  .  .  .  The 
happy  result  of  his  journey  is  very  gratifying,  and  we  have  to  thank  his 
diligent  studies  for  a  valuable  contribution  to  biblical  geography." 

From  Professor  C.  A.  Briggs  (of  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary) in   The  Presbyterian  Review. 

*'  This  is  the  most-  important  work  upon  the  geography  of  the  Holy 
Land  produced  in  America  since  the  Biblical  Researches  of  Edward 
Robinson.  .  .  .  Dr.  Trumbull  ,  .  .  has  established  the  site  of 
Kadesh-Barnea  so  thoroughly,  and  so  fortified  his  conclusions  on  every 
hand,  that  we  believe  no  one  will  hereafter  think  of  questioning  them. 
.  .  .  The  book  is  written  in  an  interesting  and  fervent  style.  The 
author  grapples  with  his  reader.  His  enthusiasm  is  contagious.  The 
critic  has  to  take  care  and  stand  firm  lest  he  be  swept  off  his  feet.  We 
thank  Dr.  Trumbull  for  his  labor  of  love  and  enthusiasm.  He  has  done 
honor  to  American  pluck  and  indefatigable  research.  We  are  proud  of 
the  book  and  the  man." 

*^*  For  sale  by  all  booksellers ^  or  sent  post-paid  upon  receipt  of  price ^  by 

Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
Nos.  743  and  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


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